2024 League of Legends World Championship

Qualification and a Changing Landscape

The 2024 World Championship featured twenty teams from across the globe. Qualification was based on placement in regional leagues and results from the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational. The top leagues, the LCK and LPL, each had three teams directly qualify for the Swiss stage, while the LEC and LCS had two. Gen.G, as the MSI champion, earned automatic qualification, which also counted as an extra seed for the LCK. The LPL, as the MSI runner-up region, also received an additional spot. Four more teams advanced from a separate play-in stage.

The play-in stage itself featured eight teams from smaller or lower-seeded regions. These included the top two from the Pacific Championship Series and Vietnam Championship Series summer playoffs, the third-place teams from the LCS Championship and LEC Season Finals, and the champions of the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends Split 2 and the Liga Latinoamérica Closing Split. This tournament marked the end of an era for several regions. It was the final World Championship where teams from the PCS and VCS qualified individually, as they merged with the LJL and LCO to form the new League of Legends Championship Pacific in 2025. Similarly, it was the last event for individual LLA qualification, as the LCS, CBLol, and LLA merged to form the League of Legends Championship of The Americas, which would have separate North and South conferences.

This restructuring meant the 2024 event was a farewell to the old format. The LCS and CBLOL were slated to return to the World Championship individually starting in 2026 after the planned Americas league was discontinued, but for 2024, it was the last dance for the LLA as a standalone qualifying region.

Tournament Structure and Venues

The championship unfolded in three distinct phases across three European capitals. The action began with the play-in stage from 25 to 29 September at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin. Here, eight teams competed in a double-elimination bracket. Teams were placed into pools, with Pool 1 teams facing Pool 2 teams in the opening matches, and no two teams from the same region were placed in the same half of the bracket. All matches were contested as best-of-three series. The top four teams advanced to join the sixteen-team Swiss stage as Pool 4 seeds.

The Swiss stage was also held in Berlin at the Riot Games Arena, running from 3 to 7 and 10 to 13 October, with matches starting at 14:00 CEST. This phase used a Swiss-system format over five rounds. In the first round, Pool 1 teams faced the new Pool 4 qualifiers, while Pool 2 teams faced Pool 3 teams, again avoiding intra-regional matches. From the second round onward, teams with identical records played each other, with matchups determined by a draw after each round. A new rule for this year prevented any rematches against previous opponents. Teams needed three wins to advance to the knockout stage and suffered elimination after three losses. All matches that could lead to advancement or elimination were best-of-three, while all other matches were best-of-one.

The tournament then moved to Paris for the knockout stage. The quarterfinals and semifinals were held at the Adidas Arena from 17 to 20 and 26 to 27 October. The grand finale was held on 2 November at The O2 Arena in London, a venue announced during the previous year's final in Seoul. All knockout stage matches were best-of-five series.

The Road to the Final

Before the tournament began, Riot Games released a Global Power Ranking powered by Amazon Web Services. These rankings used an Elo model to evaluate team strength. Gen.G was ranked first with 1,663 points, followed by Bilibili Gaming with 1,602 points. Hanwha Life Esports, Top Esports, and G2 Esports completed the top five. The defending champions, T1, were positioned sixth with 1,467 points in these pre-tournament evaluations.

The Swiss stage whittled the field down to eight teams for the single-elimination knockout bracket. The seeding for the bracket had specific rules. The two teams that finished the Swiss stage with a perfect 3–0 record were placed on opposite sides of the bracket and faced teams that had advanced with a 3–2 record in the quarterfinals. All other teams were seeded randomly into the remaining spots.

The final bracket set the stage for a clash between South Korea's LCK and China's LPL. In the championship match at The O2 Arena, T1 faced Bilibili Gaming. In a tightly contested series that went the full distance, T1 emerged victorious with a 3–2 scoreline. This victory secured their successful title defense and extended their organization's record to five World Championship wins. The members of the winning team lifted the Summoner's Cup, earning the title of 2024 League of Legends World Champions.

Marketing and Atmosphere

The tournament's official slogan, Make Them Believe, was unveiled on 31 August 2024 alongside a format explainer video. The event's theme song, Heavy Is the Crown, was performed by the rock band Linkin Park and announced on 24 September. A music video was released the following day.

The video featured players from T1, the most recent champions, including reigning Finals MVP Zeus, Oner, Faker, Gumayusi, and Keria. It also featured players from winners of major regional splits, such as Gen.G's Chovy of the LCK, Bilibili Gaming's Bin of the LPL, G2 Esports's Caps of the LEC, and FlyQuest's Massu of the LCS. Notably, Red Canids player Brance from the CBLOL was also included, despite his team not qualifying for the tournament.

Linkin Park performed the song live as part of the opening ceremony for the final match between Bilibili Gaming and T1. This performance was particularly notable as the band was on tour for their upcoming album at the time and had previously played at The O2 Arena, where they also performed the tournament anthem.

Prize Pool and Legacy

The base prize pool for the competition was set at US$2,250,000. This amount was subject to increase based on sales of an in-game event pass within the League of Legends store. The total pool was distributed among all participating teams based on their final ranking in the tournament.

Beyond the competition, the 2024 World Championship served as a historical milestone. It was the third time Germany and France had hosted the event, and the second time for England since 2015. More significantly, it was the last tournament under the old regional qualification system, signaling a major shift in the global competitive structure for the following years with the creation of new cross-regional leagues.

The event also reinforced what T1 and mid laner Faker are remembered for, as his team added a fifth Summoner's Cup to their long history by triumphing in a classic five-game final in London. Their victory from a sixth-place power ranking demonstrated the unpredictability and high stakes of the World Championship stage.