2022 League of Legends World Championship

The 2022 League of Legends World Championship (Spanish: El Campeonato Mundial de League of Legends 2022) was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the twelfth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament was held from September 29 to November 5 in Mexico and the United States.^[2] It was the fourth edition of the World Championship to be held in the United States after the 2012, 2013, and 2016 editions, while this marked the first time Mexico hosted the tournament.

Twenty-four teams from 11 regions qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in China, Europe, North America, South Korea, Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau/Southeast Asia and Vietnam, with twelve of those teams having to reach the main event via a play-in stage.^[3]

On August 29, Riot Games announced and revealed the new Summoner's Cup that would be awarded to the winner of the finals.^[4] "Star Walkin'" was announced as the tournament's theme song, performed by Lil Nas X.^[5]

DRX won the tournament after defeating T1 3–2 in a close final series.^[6] This was the first international title won by DRX, as well as the first by a play-in team. DRX's advance to the finals was widely described by commentators as a Cinderella run. DRX was considered an underdog team, having barely qualified for the tournament as South Korea's final seed, and having been pitted against a number of tournament favorites, including defending world champions Edward Gaming.^[7][8][9]

This is the last edition of Worlds to feature a round-robin play-in stage and group stage before switching to a GSL-style double-elimination bracket for the play-in stage and a Swiss stage main stage for the next edition of the tournament.

China (LPL) and South Korea (LCK) received an additional spot, totaling up to four representatives each for their respective region.

Due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, CIS (LCL) will not be able to send their representative this year, their slot will be given to the Europe (LEC) due to their strong performance over the past two years, making the LEC having four representatives for the region.^[10]

Top 4 regions in 2022 Mid-Season Invitational (LPL, LCK, LEC, LCS) are seeded to pool 1 in the main event's group stage for the summer champion.

Mexico City, New York City, Atlanta and San Francisco were the four cities chosen to host the tournament.^[35] Toronto formerly had been chosen to host the semifinals, but later Riot Games decided to host in Atlanta due to COVID-19 impacting the viability of securing multi-entry visas from Canada to the United States within necessary timelines.^[36]

The play-in groups took place from 29 September to 2 October. Twelve teams were drawn into two groups of six based on their seeding, with the restriction that two teams from the LEC could not be placed in the same group. The stage was played in a single round-robin format, with all matches contested as best-of-one. When teams finished with identical win–loss records, tie-breaker matches were held. In the case of a two-way tie, the result of the head-to-head game was not used to determine the winner; however, the team that had won the head-to-head match received side selection in the tiebreaker. The top team from each group automatically qualified for the main event, while the second- to fourth-placed teams advanced to the play-in knockouts, with the second-placed team receiving a bye to match 2. The bottom two teams were eliminated.

The play-in knockouts were held from 3 to 4 October, using a king-of-the-hill format with two branches. The third-placed teams from the group stage faced the fourth-placed teams from the same group in the first match of each branch. The winners then played against the second-placed teams from the other group in the second match. All matches were single-elimination and contested as best-of-five series. The winners of the second match in each branch advanced to the main event group stage.

Source: LoL Esports

The main event group stage took place from 7 to 16 October. Sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four based on their seeding, with teams from the same region generally not permitted to be placed in the same group. In the scenario where both the LEC 3rd and 4th seeded teams advanced to the group stage, the 4th-seeded team was exempt from the rule preventing a group from having more than one team from the same region. If either LEC team was eliminated during the play-in stage, the restriction remained in place. The stage was played in a double round-robin format, with all matches contested as best-of-one. When teams finished with identical win–loss and head-to-head records, tiebreaker matches were held to determine first or second place. In cases where more than two teams had the same record, tiebreaker placement was determined by the combined times of the teams’ victorious games. The top two teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage, while the bottom two were eliminated.^[37]

The main event knockout stage took place from 20 October to 5 November. Eight teams that advanced from the group stage were drawn into a single-elimination bracket. All matches were contested as best-of-five series. Each first-placed team from the group stage was matched against a second-placed team from a different group. The first-placed team selected the side for the first game, while the loser of each game chose the side for the following game. Teams that had advanced from the same group were placed on opposite sides of the bracket, ensuring that they could not meet until the final.

Source: LoL Esports

• 2022 World Championship Rules v22.0