2016 League of Legends World Championship

Tournament Format and Background

The 2016 World Championship was held in North America, following the 2015 edition in Europe. Sixteen teams qualified through their regional circuits in areas like South Korea, China, Europe, and North America. The tournament progressed through a group stage and a single-elimination knockout stage.

The group stage was played at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. It used a best-of-one double round-robin format, where the top two teams from each of the four groups advanced. The quarterfinals moved to The Chicago Theater, the semifinals to Madison Square Garden in New York, and the grand final to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Riot Games introduced features to welcome new viewers, including a second explanatory stream. The tournament also had its own anthem, Ignite, created by DJ Zedd, which referenced highlights from past championships. The video for the song accumulated nearly 90 million views on YouTube by July 2022.

Prize Pool and Fan Contributions

The prize pool for the event started at $2.13 million, funded by Riot Games. A significant portion of the final total came from fan purchases. Riot pledged to add 25% of all revenue from sales of special Championship-themed in-game skins and wards to the prize pool.

By October 28, these sales had grown the pool to $5.07 million, already a record. When contributions closed on November 6, the final prize pool reached $6.7 million, the largest single prize pool in League of Legends history at that time. The winning team, SK Telecom T1, received 40% of this total, a shared prize of approximately $2 million. The runner-up, Samsung Galaxy, received 15%. SKT also earned 25% of revenue from skins created to commemorate their championship victory.

Qualification and Seeding

Sixteen teams earned their place at the tournament based on their performance in regional circuits like the LCK in Korea and the LPL in China. The results of the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational impacted seeding. Because the European team from that event, G2 Esports, did not finish in the top four, the champion of the European summer split was placed in the second seeding pool instead of the first, affecting the group stage draw.

The Group Stage Drama

The group stage produced several memorable stories. In Group A, the Russian wildcard team Albus NoX Luna made history by becoming the first team from a wildcard region to reach the quarterfinals. They forced a tiebreaker with the leading Korean team ROX Tigers, who ultimately won the group. European first seed G2 Esports underperformed and was eliminated.

Group B was decided on the final day, with Cloud9 advancing as the sole North American representative. All teams except Korean first seed SK Telecom T1 had identical records going into the last matches. Cloud9 advanced by capitalizing on inconsistent play from the Chinese and Taiwanese teams. During their match, Cloud9's Zachary Sneaky Scuderi set a new world championship record by killing 690 minions. The Chinese team I May was also hampered when one of its players was suspended for one match and fined $2000 for abusive behavior in online games.

Group C was the only group without a Korean first seed. Its two qualifiers, H2k-Gaming from Europe and EDward Gaming from China, were both considered favorites. Despite a 1-2 start, H2k won four straight matches, including a tiebreaker against EDG, to top the group. Group D was dubbed the group of death, featuring top teams from Korea, China, and North America. Samsung Galaxy won the group convincingly, aided by strong play from Kang Ambition Chang-yong, while Royal Never Give Up defeated North American champions TSM in a head-to-head tiebreaker to claim the second spot.

Knockout Stage and Semifinal Classic

The quarterfinals in Chicago featured three Korean teams, two Chinese teams, and one team each from North America, Europe, and the wildcard region. The matches were best-of-five series. The Korean teams proved dominant, with SK Telecom T1, ROX Tigers, and Samsung Galaxy all advancing. They ended the runs of the last Chinese teams, EDward Gaming and Royal Never Give Up, and the last North American team, Cloud9. H2k-Gaming swept Albus NoX Luna 3-0 to become the lone European semifinalist.

The semifinals at Madison Square Garden are remembered for one of the greatest series in esports history. SK Telecom T1 faced the ROX Tigers, the 2015 Korean summer champions and tournament favorites, in a five-game thriller. Many commentators called this the true world final and it is still considered by many the greatest best-of-five series in League of Legends history. SKT narrowly prevailed. In the other semifinal, Samsung Galaxy swept H2k-Gaming 3-0 to secure their spot in the final.

The Historic Grand Final

The final at the Staples Center was a six-hour marathon played before nearly 20,000 fans. It was the first world championship final to go the full five games. A projection of the game's minimap, showing team map control, was displayed on the arena floor. SK Telecom T1, the defending champions whose roster included many returning members, took the first two games. Samsung Galaxy, whose players largely lacked finals experience, mounted a comeback.

They won an epic 71-minute third game, the second-longest in competitive history at the time, by securing key fights around the Baron objective after SKT had built an early lead. They then won the fourth game after another crucial Baron engagement, despite SKT's defensive stalling. In the final game, SKT adopted a more cautious style, securing two Baron and two Elder Dragon kills to clinch the series and the championship.

With this victory, SK Telecom T1 successfully defended their 2015 title and became the first three-time world champion. Their star mid-laner, Lee Faker Sang-hyeok, was named tournament MVP, his first Worlds MVP award. During the finals, he broke the previous world championship kill record, finishing the tournament with 217 kills. ESPN's Timothy Lee called the finals an instant classic.

Viewership, Impact, and Legacy

The 2016 World Championship achieved unprecedented viewership, surpassing the 2015 edition. The final was watched by 43 million viewers, with a peak of 14.7 million watching concurrently. Over the entire tournament, 370 million hours of esports were streamed, and cumulative daily impressions reached 396 million.

The event's success had a ripple effect beyond esports. The organization behind Los Angeles's bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, LA 2024, was inspired by the production. Chairman Casey Wasserman suggested using augmented and virtual reality technologies seen at Worlds to make the Olympics more accessible to younger audiences. Although Paris won the 2024 Games, Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 edition. The International Olympic Committee's subsequent investment in esports, leading to the Olympic Esports Games, can be partly traced to the global impact demonstrated by tournaments like the 2016 Worlds.