League of Legends esports is the professional competition of the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. The game, released in 2009, was the first to be developed and published by Riot Games. Esports tournaments for the game began as early as 2010, most notably with the 2010 World Cyber Games when it was featured as a promotion game. In 2011, the first edition of the League of Legends World Championship was held at DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden, which was won by Fnatic.
League of Legends is one of the largest esports with various annual tournaments taking place worldwide. In terms of esports professional gaming as of June 2016, League of Legends has had US$29,203,916 in prize money, 4,083 Players, and 1,718 tournaments, compared to Dota 2's US$64,397,286 of prize money, 1,495 players, and 613 tournaments.
Former League Championship Series commissioner Chris Greeley is the current Global Head of League of Legends Esports (LoL Esports) for Riot Games since 2024.
History 2011–2012: Early years
League of Legends has 16 years of competitive history, with competitions beginning in 2010. On 30 June of that year, Riot Games, the game's developer, and World Cyber Games Inc., announced that it would be featured at the 2010 World Cyber Games in Los Angeles, United States as one of the promotional game titles, with representatives from China, Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia forming teams of five players. American team Counter Logic Gaming won the tournament, defeating European representatives SK Gaming. Prior to the World Cyber Games, League of Legends has built a strong player base, but the introduction of drafts and ranked mode brought competitive experience to the game. As Riot Games was seeing growing viewership, it decided to enter the competitive scene with the first World Championship in 2011, which would be hosted by DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden. The inaugural tournament saw players bringing their own computers and competing in front of fans, while networking with other fellow players Eight teams competed - three each from North America and Europe, and one team each from Singapore and the Philippines. European representative Fnatic would win the inaugural World Championship, which saw over 1.6 million accumulated viewers, with a peak viewership of 210,000 concurrent viewers.
In 2012, the first two regional leagues would be established - the League Championship Series of both North America (NA LCS) and Europe (EU LCS). Both leagues would have their inaugural seasons the following year in 2013. The EU LCS would later be renamed as the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) in 2019, later as EMEA Championship in 2023 to incorporate teams from Turkey, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the MENA region. The Riot Brazilian Champion League (Brazil) and The Champions (South Korea) would also be established, with both tournaments later becoming professional leagues, renaming as the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL) and the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), respectively. The same year also saw Taiwanese team Taipei Assassins winning the second edition of the World Championship - the only team so far to win the title outside teams from China, Europe, and South Korea. Viewership also improved from the first edition at 1.1 million concurrent viewers during the final. A special LAN-based client was also developed as a response to delayed matches caused by network issues during the Season 2 World Playoffs, designed for use in tournament environments where the effects of lag and other network issues can be detrimental to the proper organization of an event. The LAN client was deployed for the first time during the first quarter-final and semi-final matches played following the rescheduled matches, and was in use during the finals.
2013–2017: Regional leagues, first Korean dominance, and franchising
2013 saw the establishment of the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) in China, which began with eight teams, and the first Asian team to win the World Championship, with South Korea's SK Telecom T1, which featured then-rookie Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, defeating China's Royal Club in the 2013 edition, with the final taking place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This would also start a five-year streak of Korean World Championship winners.
On 11 July 2013, Riot Games announced that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services recognized League of Legends pro-players as professional athletes and that the P visa application process would be more simplified for them. These changes allowed professional players to stay in the United States for up to five years. Despite these reforms, there have still been a number of visa problems that have occurred for players in the LCS and other LoL tournaments entering the United States.
The 2014 World Championship was the first edition to be hosted for the first time in multiple countries (Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea). This would become a model for future World Championship hostings, specifically in Europe and North America. In the same year, Riot Games introduced the concept of "Championship points", which teams would earn based on performance across both splits and playoffs in order to qualify for the tournament. Between 2014 and 2017, SK Telecom T1 won two world titles, and both Samsung Galaxy White and Samsung Galaxy winning one. 2015 also saw the creation of a new international tournament - the Mid-Season Invitational. The first tournament was held in 2015 in Tallahassee, Florida in the United States, and was won by Chinese team Edward Gaming, becoming the first Chinese team to win an international League of Legends title. The 2017 League of Legends World Championship was the first edition to be held in China and the first to feature a play-in stage.
Franchising in League of Legends esports also began in 2017, when the LPL announced in April of that year that it would become a franchised league, removing the promotion and relegation system. Months later, Riot Games announced that the NA LCS would follow suit with ten permanent teams beginning in 2018. Each of the ten teams would have guaranteed spots, which would encourage owners to make substantial investments, including the creation of training facilities and improvements in coaching, scouting, and player well-being. Each team was also mandated to maintain an academy squad for emerging talent development. Riot Games also raised the minimum salary for players to , with an average annual income for League pros around $150,000. Additionally, a players' association was established to offer financial, legal, and career-building support to players. This franchising model would follow suit in the LEC (2019), CBLOL (2020), and LCK (2021).
2018–2021: Growing popularity, Chinese dominance, and COVID-19 impact
In 2018, the LPL won its first World Championship, with Chinese team Invictus Gaming winning against European representatives Fnatic in a 3-0 sweep. The 2018 edition of the tournament also had a prize pool of $6,450,000, which remains the highest for any international League of Legends competition to date. By December 2018, each major region had its unique name, logo, and brand identities following the re-branding of the NA LCS to simply the LCS alongside an updated logo. 2018 also saw the creation of the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA), which was a merger between the Liga Latinoamérica Norte (LLN, North Latin America League) and Copa Latinoamérica Sur (CLS, South Latin America Cup). The league would cease operations six years later in 2024.
In 2019, it was announced that alongside its shift to a franchised league, the LEC's secondary league, the EU Challenger Series (EUCS), was discontinued and replaced with an independent tournament named European Masters (later EMEA Masters), which features the top teams from Europe's many regional leagues. Riot Games and Tencent also created a joint venture called "TJ Sports" to oversee all League of Legends esports operations in China, including tournament organizing, talent management, and venues. The same year would also see European team G2 Esports have major international success - winning the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, becoming the first European team to win the tournament, and reaching the final of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, hosted in Germany, Spain, and France. The team notably beat SK Telecom T1 in the semifinals, and were on the verge of achieving a "golden road" after winning MSI and both regional splits, but they would lose to the LPL's FunPlus Phoenix, who won the region's second consecutive world title.
The global COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact in League of Legends esports, as the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational was cancelled and the 2020 League of Legends World Championship in China was held in an "isolation bubble" environment in Shanghai, as opposed to a previously planned multi-city hosting of the tournament. MSI was replaced by the 2020 Mid-Season Streamathon, a live stream event for a cause, with proceeds going to COVID-19 relief efforts. Regionally, leagues had to temporarily suspend operations, eventually shift to online play, and to hold games behind closed doors as opposed to having roadshows. For instance, the LCS Spring Finals weekend of the said year were planned to take place at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas, but the event was moved to the LCS's Los Angeles studio. The final of the 2020 World Championship, however, was held with limited fans in attendance at the Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai, with the LCK's Damwon Gaming defeating the LPL's Suning to win its first world title. Regional and international play behind closed doors continued in 2021, with all games of the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship being held at the Laugardalshöll in Reykjavík, Iceland, the latter of which was originally scheduled to take place in China, with Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Shenzhen serving as host cities. Regional leagues also had to continue play with no spectators in attendance.
2022–2024: Return to touring, Korean resurgence, and influencer teams
Spectators returned to live events beginning in 2022, with regional leagues offering limited capacities each game day. The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational was held in Busan, South Korea, which was won by the LPL's Royal Never Give Up despite competing remotely in the team's training facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China. Mexico would host its first League of Legends World Championship in 2022 alongside the United States. Canada was originally slated to host the semi-final stage of the tournament at the Scotiabank Arena, Toronto. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on securing multi-entry visas, Riot Games announced the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, United States as its replacement venue. The World Championship was won by DRX, defeating T1, who went 18-0 during the LCK's Spring split of that year, with a 3-2 scoreline and is considered of a Cinderella run by commentators, with many regarding it as one of the greatest finals in the history of League of Legends. DRX also became the first team to win the world title as a fourth seed and after starting the tournament in the play-in stage. The following year's Mid-Season Invitational was the first international tournament to be held in Europe after the COVID-19 pandemic, and was won by JD Gaming after defeating Bilibili Gaming in an all-LPL final. T1 would bounce back from their 2022 defeat, winning the 2023 League of Legends World Championship on home soil, and would be the start of another streak of international victories for the LCK.