League of Legends World Championship 2026

The League of Legends World Championship — universally called 'Worlds' — was first held in June 2011 at DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden. Eight teams competed for a $50,000 prize pool. European team Fnatic won the inaugural championship in front of just a few hundred spectators, defeating Against All Authority in the final.

Worlds grew with extraordinary speed. By 2012 it had moved to the USC Galen Center in Los Angeles; by 2014 a 40,000-strong crowd packed Seoul's World Cup Stadium. Worlds 2019 in Paris drew a peak concurrent viewership exceeding 100 million — making it the most watched esports broadcast in history at the time. The 2022 Finals at San Francisco's Chase Center and the 2023 Seoul final in front of 65,000 fans at the Gocheok Sky Dome set new standards.

The dominant narrative of Worlds has been Korean excellence. SK Telecom T1 (now T1), led by Lee 'Faker' Sang-hyeok — widely considered the greatest esports player ever — won five world titles. China's LPL has increasingly challenged that dominance. T1's fifth title in 2024 confirmed their status as the most successful team in esports history.