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The official press release of the North American video game developer Riot Games confirms that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship, one of the main esports events in League of Legends, will be officially heading to Iceland.
Announcement
The company published a Twitter post with the official announcement of the tournament:
Worlds 2021 is heading to Iceland! Tune in October 5 – November 6 at https://t.co/lh1tk7wEe0. pic.twitter.com/fTFxf42yFH
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 9, 2021
Riot Games, based in Los Angeles, CA, the developer of League of Legends, has recently released a YouTube video with the teaser of the announcement.
The announcement video displays a short footage featuring Baron Nashor’s image and the logo of the Worlds, in the end mixing it up with the snowy mountains view presumably in Iceland.
Worlds 2021 details
Riot also announced some of the important details about the format of the upcoming competition.
It is confirmed that Worlds 2021 will take place from October 5, when the play-in stage will start with 10 participating teams. 22 teams will play in total. Groups and knockouts will be played throughout October, and finals are set to start on November 6.
Group stage will feature 4 qualified teams from the play-ins and 12 additional teams, 16 teams in total.
LCK
Top teams of the tournament include one the world’s best LoL teams, such as DWG KIA, Gen.G Esports and T1, a multigaming esports organization owned by SK telecom. All these three organizations are coming from Korean LCK.
LPL
The best Chinese teams, such as EDward Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix and Royal Never Give Up qualified from LPL, the region’s most prestigious LoL league.
LEC
Europe’s best LoL teams, such as MAD Lions from Spain, Fnatic and Rogue, are also set to compete in the upcoming world cup.
LCS
The North American LoL region will be represented by the two of the top contenders: 100 Thieves and Team Liquid.
PCS
Finally, the PCS 2021 Summer Champion — PSG Talon, will be the single representative of its region, which includes Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia.
Location
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions and logistical challenges, the developer previously had to cancel the LAN event that was scheduled to be held in China.
The new event will take place in Reykjavik, Iceland. The location of the event was carefully selected and approved because of the previous positive experience.
It is stated that Riot Games are heavily focusing on health and safety of the participants. Therefore, the competition will be held with no live audience.
The Laugardalsholl Sport Center in Reykjavik previously hosted two competitions held by the North American company.
MSI 2021
The first event, which was the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational, is said to be one of the most successful MSI competitions to date. It is one of the Riot’s two annual major tournaments alongside Worlds series.
Over 23 million peak viewers witnessed the final epic match, where two of the world’s giants fought for the title of the best League of Legends team in the world.
Royal Never Give Up ended up being stronger than DWG KIA. The Chinese team won the final match with the score of 3:2.
RNG ended up grabbing 30% of the prize pool, taking home $75,000 for first place. Koreans ended up with a $50,000 prize for placing second.
Other pursuers such as PSG Talon from Hong Kong region, coming from the PCS, and MAD Lions from Europe’s LEC grabbed 3rd-4th place and $25,000.
VCT 2021 Stage 2 Masters Reykjavik
The second competition was played in Riot’s most recent addition to the list of their roster of competitive esports titles — an FPS game titled Valorant.
The VALORANT Champions Tour 2021: Stage 2 Masters — Reykjavik tournament was hosted in the same venue, at the end of May 2021, with the total prize pool of $600,000.
A part of VCT series, the first ever LAN event and world’s first ever world championship of the title featured a total of 10 teams playing it out through the double elimination bracket.
The Valorant event in Reykjavik had more than 1 million peak viewers.
Team Sentinels won first place and $200,000, while Fnatic came second and earned $100,000. NUTURN Gaming and Team Liquid placed 3rd and 4th, earning $80,000 and $60,000, respectively.