As announced in February, the 2018 League of Legends World Championship is heading back to South Korea where the 24 top teams in the world will compete for the Summoner’s Cup! We’re excited to hold our first ‘All-Korea’ Worlds, and will be traveling to key corners of the country over the course of the event.

Below is an overview of host cities and event dates.

PLAY-IN STAGE:

We’ll kick Worlds off in South Korea’s capital Seoul, where 12 teams will compete for the 4 remaining Group Stage spots. Dates for the Play-In Stage are as follows:

• Oct 1-4
• Oct 6-7

GROUP STAGE & QUARTERFINALS:

After the conclusion of the Play-In Stage in Seoul we’ll head southeast to Busan – Korea’s second most populous city known for its beaches, mountains and temples. Dates for the Group Stage and Quarterfinals are as follows:

• Oct 10-17 (Group Stage)
• Oct 20-21 (Quarterfinals)

SEMIFINALS:

Once the four remaining teams have been determined, we’ll travel southwest to Gwangju for Semifinals. Semis dates are as follows:

• Oct 27-28

FINALS:

The Worlds 2018 winner will hoist the trophy in Incheon on November 3rd.

FAQ:

How and when can I buy tickets?

Event tickets will be sold globally through Interpark. More information regarding ticket sales dates, as well as venues will be provided over the next several weeks!

It looks like this Worlds is a little shorter than usual, how come?

We’re looking to reduce the amount of time pro players and their team staff have to be on the road (particularly when it comes to downtime), as Worlds can represent a commitment of up to a month or longer spent in a foreign country.

What this change specifically means is: Group Stage games will now take place over the course of 8 consecutive days (rather than over 2 weeks with a break in between), and Quarterfinal games will take place over 2 days, rather than 4. Aside from the changes to Quarterfinals, the total number of match days (compared to Worlds 2017) isn’t being changed.

Last year you announced venues, cities, and dates for Worlds as early as February. Why did this announcement take so long?

Short answer: we were scouting for cities and venues (and entering into negotiations) as early as late last year, but chose a finals location that fell through late in the process.

Since then, we put all of our efforts into locking down a location worthy of the League of Legends World Championship Finals.

We’re deeply sorry to those whose travel plans have been impacted by this short notice. This was a series of unfortunate events – many due to decisions that we made – and we have plans to fix this in the future, including a multi-year roadmap for which regions and cities we’ll be visiting.

If you’d like to hear more about the situation, you can read a letter from our global events lead HERE.