For the first time since 2016, Riot Games announced that the Worlds action will be hosted in North America, and will visit three different countries on its way to the finals.
After 2016 Worlds went to China twice (almost thrice), Korea once and Europe twice. Thus the fans at North America were frustrated. Finally, Riot Games heard their calling are bringing back the best esports competition of League of Legends to the continent.
Which cities will the Worlds visit and what is going to happen? Find out below.
Worlds 2022 travelling North America
There is a catch: They are going to Mexico and Canada too! For the first time ever, a part of Worlds 2022 is going to Mexico City and Toronto. You can find the full list with the venues below:
Play-In stage: Mexico City, Mexico - Liga Latinoamerica competition arena
Groups and quarterfinals: New York City, New York - Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden
Semifinals: Toronto, Canada - Scotiabank Arena (Toronto Raptors’ home)
Finals: San Francisco, California - Chase Center (Golden State Warriors’ home)
So, coming back to North America didn’t only mean coming back to the United States for Riot Games. Mexico will host such an event for the first time in their LoL Esports history, along with Canada. They will also be the first minor region to do that, as Play-in is considered a part of Worlds now and Mexico is a part of LLA. This will also give hope of hosting MSI or Worlds one day to those in the minor regions like Japan or Turkey, as Brazil, Vietnam and Taiwan already hosted MSI before.
Stats and highlights from Worlds 2021
Worlds 2021 was a success, even without viewers watching it live for Riot Games. According to Stream Hatchet, Worlds 2021 saw a 60% increase in peak concurrent viewership with an impressive number of 73.8 million viewers, including Chinese platforms.
The tournament is the second most-watched event in the history of esports, but we can only reach the statistics excluding Chinese platforms. It seems that with 4 million peak viewers, Worlds 2021 is just behind Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore which was watched by 5.4 million viewers.
Worlds 2021 was originally going to China, but because of the possibility that some teams and players will not be able to embark into China at all, Riot Games decided to move the tournament to Iceland. Unlike Worlds 2020 where the final was watched by some Chinese fans, Worlds 2021 was behind closed doors, even the opening ceremony was pre-recorded. Let’s hope it will not be the case for Worlds 2022.
2022 League of Legends competitive season
As always, League of Legends Season 2022 will start with the spring season for all the regions. After the end of the domestic leagues, MSI 2022 will take place. According to LCS’ announcement in August, MSI 2022 will be hosted in North America. With this tweet, LCS revealed that the competition will be hosted at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
After MSI, the qualifying for the Worlds will begin. Every region will play their summer season, and determine their representatives. Riot Games announced that they will share more details concerning Worlds 2022 in the future, including schedule, format and of course how many slots the regions will get.
Until then, this is all we know about Worlds 2022 today.
Previous World Championship locations and winners
- Season 1 World Championship (Worlds S1): Fnatic - Jönköping, Sweden.
- Season 2 World Championship (Worlds S2): Taipei Assasins - Los Angeles, California
- Season 3 World Championship (Worlds S3): SK Telecom T1 - California
- 2014 World Championship (Worlds 2014): Samsung White - Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea
- 2015 World Championship (Worlds 2015): SK Telecom T1 - Europe: Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin
- 2016 World Championsh (Worlds 2016): SK Telecom T1 - North America: California, Illinois, New York
- 2017 World Championship (Worlds 2017): Samsung Galaxy - China: Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing
- 2018 World Championship (Worlds 2018): Invictus Gaming - South Korea: Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Incheon
- 2019 World Championship (Worlds 2019): FunPlus Phoenix - Europe: Berlin, Madrid, Paris
- 2020 World Championship (Worlds 2020): DAMWON Gaming - Shanghai, China
- 2021 World Championship (Worlds 2021): EDward Gaming - Reykjavik, Iceland
You can find the schedule and bet on the best League of Legends matches at Luckbox.
