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2018 League of Legends World Championship

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League of Legends
World Championship
2018
Tournament information
LocationSouth Korea
DatesOctober 1–November 3
Tournament
format(s)
12 team double round-robin play-in stage
16 team double round-robin group stage
8 team single-elimination bracket
Venue(s)
4 (in 4 host cities)
Teams24
Purse$6.450.000
Final positions
ChampionInvictus Gaming
Runner-upFnatic
Tournament statistics
AttendancePeak viewership: 43.997.815[1]
MVPGao "Ning" Zhenning (Invictus Gaming)
← 2017
2019 →

The 2018 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the eighth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. It was held from October 1 to November 3, 2018, in cities across South Korea. Twenty four teams qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in China, South Korea, Europe, and North America, with twelve of those teams having to reach the group stage via a play-in round.[2] The tournament became known for its very surprising results, numerous upsets, and has often been considered the most unpredictable worlds in League of Legends' history.[3][4][5] The tournament also became the most watched esports event in history, reaching a peak of over 200 million concurrent viewers during the finals. It surpassed the viewership of the 2017 League of Legends World Championship, as well as the peak viewership of numerous worldwide sporting events including the Super Bowl.[6][7]

The tournament's opening ceremony received significant attention, with over 90 million concurrent viewers tuning in for the performance. A virtual K-pop group named K/DA was unveiled by Riot Games during the ceremony, with Soyeon and Miyeon from (G)I-dle, Madison Beer and Jaira Burns representing the group as its human counterpart and in the live performance of the finals. K/DA topped global music charts after the initial release of their debut song "Pop/Stars", receiving considerable attention online and raking in one of the fastest viewership records for its music video on YouTube. A dance practice video of "Pop/Stars", as popular in the K-pop scene, was also released.[8][9][10] "RISE" is the tournament's theme song, put together by The Glitch Mob, Mako and The Word Alive. A remix version of "RISE" featuring Bobby from IKON was also released shortly after, with the song being performed on the tournament's finals by all the involved music groups and artists.[11] The song would be performed again when Korea hosted the tournament for the second time in 2023.

The victory of China's Invictus Gaming over Europe's Fnatic in the tournament's finals marked the first time in League of Legends history that the LPL (China) as a region won the world championship, as well as the first time a non-LCK (Korean) team has won after five consecutive years of prior Korean winners. The final series is also the fastest world championship finals in history at 85 minutes total game time.[12] Gao “Ning” Zhenning was awarded the MVP of the finals due to his outstanding performance and contributions during the series, marking the first time a jungle position player has won a world championship MVP.[13][14]

Qualified teams

[edit]

Although the South Korea (LCK) representative, Kingzone DragonX, lost to China's (LPL) representative Royal Never Give Up (LPL) in 2018 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) Finals, all three teams from South Korea (LCK) started in the Main Group Stage, having won the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational and the previous two World Championships. With the results of 2018 MSI and following their separation from the rest of the Southeast Asian (SEA) region, Vietnam (VCS) had a direct seed into the Main Group Stage for the summer split victor in their region, but unlike the previous year, Vietnam had no additional slots in the Play-In Stage for their summer runner-up team, because of the 24 team limit. The North American (NA LCS) summer split champion team was seeded to Pool 2 due to their performance at the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational.

Region League Path Team ID Pool
Start in Main event's Group stage
South Korea LCK Summer Champion South Korea KT Rolster KT 1
Most Championship Points South Korea Afreeca Freecs AFs 2
Regional Finals Winner South Korea Gen.G Esports GEN
China LPL Summer Champion China Royal Never Give Up RNG 1
Most Championship Points China Invictus Gaming IG 2
Europe EU LCS Summer Champion Europe Fnatic FNC 1
Most Championship Points Europe Team Vitality VIT 2
North America NA LCS Summer Champion United States Team Liquid TL 2
Most Championship Points United States 100 Thieves 100
TW/HK/MO LMS Summer Champion Taiwan Flash Wolves FW 1
Most Championship Points Taiwan MAD Team MAD 2
Vietnam VCS Summer Champion Vietnam Phong Vũ Buffalo PVB 2
Start in Play-in stage
China LPL Regional Finals Winner China EDward Gaming EDG 1
Europe EU LCS Europe G2 Esports G2
North America NA LCS United States Cloud9 C9
TW/HK/MO LMS Taiwan G-Rex GRX
Brazil CBLOL Summer Champion Brazil KaBuM! e-Sports KBM 2
CIS LCL Russia Gambit Esports GMB
Latin America North LLN Costa Rica Infinity eSports CR INF
Turkey TCL Turkey SuperMassive e-Sports SUP
Japan LJL Japan DetonatioN FocusMe DFM 3
Latin America South CLS Chile Kaos Latin Gamers KLG
Oceania OPL Australia Dire Wolves DW
Southeast Asia SEA Thailand Ascension Gaming ASC

Venues

[edit]

Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Incheon were the four cities chosen to host the competition.

 South Korea
Seoul Busan Gwangju Incheon
Play-in Stage Group Stage and Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
LoL Park BEXCO Auditorium Gwangju Women's University [ko] Incheon Munhak Stadium
Capacity: 450 Capacity: 4,002 Capacity: 8,327 Capacity: 50,256

Play-in Stage

[edit]
  • Venue: LOL PARK, Gran Seoul 3F, Seoul.
  • Date and time: October 1–4, started from 17:00 KST (UTC+09:00)

Groups

[edit]
  • Twelve teams are drawn in four groups, with three teams each group.
  • Double round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
  • If teams have same win–loss record and head to head, they will play a tiebreaker match for 1st or 2nd place.
  • The top two teams of each group advance to round 2. The 3rd-place team is eliminated.
Group A
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Edward Gaming 4 3 1 .750 Advance to play-in knockouts
2 Infinity Esports 4 2 2 .500
3 Dire Wolves 4 1 3 .250
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group B
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 G2 Esports 5 4 1 .800 Advance to play-in knockouts
2 Bahçeşehir SuperMassive 5 3 2 .600
3 Ascension Gaming 4 0 4 .000
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group C
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Cloud9 4 4 0 1.000 Advance to play-in knockouts
2 DetonatioN FocusMe 5 2 3 .400
3 KaBuM! e-Sports 5 1 4 .200
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group D
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 G-Rex 4 4 0 1.000 Advance to play-in knockouts
2 Gambit Esports 4 2 2 .500
3 Kaos Latin Gamers 4 0 4 .000
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Knockouts

[edit]
  • Eight teams are drawn randomly into a single-elimination match, with 1st-place teams of each group facing 2nd-place teams of another group.
  • All matches are best-of-five.
  • The 1st-place team chooses the side for all odd-numbered games, while the 2nd-place team chooses the side of even-numbered games.
  • The winner advances to the main group stage.
Round 1
October 6, 13:00 KST
B1G2 Esports3
A2Infinity Esports1
October 6, 17:00 KST
D1G-Rex3
B2Bahçeşehir SuperMassive1
October 7, 13:00 KST
A1Edward Gaming3
C2DetonatioN FocusMe0
October 7, 17:00 KST
C1Cloud93
D2Gambit Esports2

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Group stage

[edit]
  • Venue: BEXCO Auditorium, Busan.
  • Date and time: October 10–17, started from 17:00 KST (UTC+09:00).
  • Sixteen teams are drawn in four groups with four teams per group. Teams of same region cannot be placed in the same group.
  • Double round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
  • If teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record, a tiebreaker match is played.
  • The top two teams of each group advance to Knockout Stage. The bottom two teams are eliminated.
Group A
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Afreeca Freecs 6 4 2 .667 Advance to knockouts
2 G2 Esports 7 4 3 .571
3 Flash Wolves 7 3 4 .429
4 Phong Vũ Buffalo 6 2 4 .333
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group B
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Royal Never Give Up 7 5 2 .714 Advance to knockouts
2 Cloud9 7 4 3 .571
3 Team Vitality 6 3 3 .500
4 Gen.G Esports 6 1 5 .167
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group C
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 KT Rolster 6 5 1 .833 Advance to knockouts
2 Edward Gaming 6 4 2 .667
3 Team Liquid 6 3 3 .500
4 MAD Team 6 0 6 .000
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group D
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Fnatic 7 6 1 .857 Advance to knockouts
2 Invictus Gaming 7 5 2 .714
3 100 Thieves 6 2 4 .333
4 G-Rex 6 0 6 .000
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Knock-out Stage

[edit]
  • Eight teams are drawn into a best-of-five single elimination bracket.
  • The 1st-place team of each group is drawn against the 2nd-place team of another group.
  • Teams of the same group can not play each other until the finals.
  • All matches are best-of-five.
QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
October 20
C1 KT Rolster2
October 27
D2 Invictus Gaming3
Invictus Gaming3
October 20
G2 Esports0
B1 Royal Never Give Up2
November 3
A2 G2 Esports3
Invictus Gaming3
October 21
Fnatic0
A1 Afreeca Freecs0
October 28
B2 Cloud93
Cloud90
October 21
Fnatic3
D1 Fnatic3
C2 EDward Gaming1

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Quarterfinals

[edit]
Quarterfinals October 20 KT Rolster 2 – 3 Invictus Gaming Busan, South Korea
13:00 KST    Source Busan Exhibition and Convention Center
0 Game 1 1
0 Game 2 1
1 Game 3 0
1 Game 4 0
0 Game 5 1
Quarterfinals October 20 Royal Never Give Up 2 – 3 G2 Esports Busan, South Korea
17:00 KST    Source Busan Exhibition and Convention Center
0 Game 1 1
1 Game 2 0
0 Game 3 1
1 Game 4 0
1 Game 5 0
Quarterfinals October 21 Afreeca Freecs 0 – 3 Cloud9 Busan, South Korea
13:00 KST    Source Busan Exhibition and Convention Center
0 Game 1 1
0 Game 2 1
0 Game 3 1
Quarterfinals October 21 Fnatic 3 – 1 Edward Gaming Busan, South Korea
17:00 KST    Source Busan Exhibition and Convention Center
0 Game 1 1
1 Game 2 0
1 Game 3 0
1 Game 4 0

Semifinals

[edit]
Semifinals October 27 Invictus Gaming 3 – 0 G2 Esports Gwangju, South Korea
17:00 KST    Source Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium
1 Game 1 0
1 Game 2 0
1 Game 3 0
Semifinals October 28 Cloud9 0 – 3 Fnatic Gwangju, South Korea
17:00 KST    Source Gwangju Women's University Universiade Gymnasium
0 Game 1 1
0 Game 2 1
0 Game 3 1

Final

[edit]
Final November 3 Invictus Gaming 3 – 0 Fnatic Incheon, South Korea
17:00 KST    Source Incheon Munhak Stadium
1 Game 1 0
1 Game 2 0
1 Game 3 0

Ranking

[edit]

Team ranking

[edit]
  • (*) Does not include tiebreaker games.
Place Region Team PS1 PS2 GS QF SF Finals Prize (%)[citation needed] Prize (USD)[15]
1st LPL China Invictus Gaming* 5–1 3–2 3–0 3–0 37.5% $2,418,750
2nd EU LCS Europe Fnatic* 5–1 3–1 3–0 0–3 13.5% $870,750
3rd–4th NA LCS United States Cloud9* 4–0 3–2 4–2 3–0 0–3 7% $451,500
EU LCS Europe G2 Esports* 3–1 3–1 3–3 3–2 0–3
5th–6th LCK South Korea KT Rolster 5–1 2–3 4% $258,000
LPL China Royal Never Give Up* 4–2 2–3
7th LPL China EDward Gaming 3–1 3–0 4–2 1–3
8th LCK South Korea Afreeca Freecs 4–2 0–3
9th–11th LMS Taiwan Flash Wolves* 3–3 2.25% $145,125
EU LCS Europe Team Vitality 3–3
NA LCS United States Team Liquid 3–3
12th NA LCS United States 100 Thieves 2–4
13th VCS Vietnam Phong Vũ Buffalo 2–4 1.25% $80,625
14th LCK South Korea Gen.G eSports 1–5
15th–16th LMS Taiwan G-Rex 4–0 3–1 0–6
LMS Taiwan MAD Team 0–6
17th LCL Russia Gambit Esports 2–2 2–3 0.75% $48,375
18th–19th TCL Turkey Super Massive e-Sports* 3–1 1–3
LLN Costa Rica Infinity eSports CR 2–2 1–3
20th LJL Japan DetonatioN FocusMe* 1–3 0–3
21st–22nd CBLOL Brazil KaBuM! e-Sports* 1–3 0.5% $32,250
OPL Australia Dire Wolves 1–3
23rd–24th CLS Chile Kaos Latin Gamers 0–4
SEA Thailand Ascension Gaming 0–4
Place Region Team PS1 PS2 GS QF SF Finals Prize (%) Prize (USD)

Regional ranking

[edit]
  • The win-ratio is determined by number of won games compared the number of games played.
  • Bracket stage wins are prioritized.
  • (*) Does not include tiebreaker games.
Place Region Teams Play-in Round 1
(4 games total) 		Play-in Round 2
(Best-of-five) 		Group Stage
(6 games total) 		Quarterfinals
(Best-of-five) 		Semifinals
(Best-of-five) 		Finals
(Best-of-five)
1st China
LPL 		2G+1P 1 team
3W-1L
(75%) 		1 team
3W-0L
(100%) 		3 teams
12W-6L
(66.67%)* 		3 teams
6W-8L
(42.86%) 		1 team
3W-0L
(100%) 		3W-0L
(100%)
2nd Europe
EU LCS 		2G+1P 1 team
3W-1L
(75%)* 		1 team
3W-1L
(75%) 		3 teams
11W-7L
(61.11%)* 		2 teams
6W-3L
(66.67%) 		2 teams
3W-3L
(50%) 		0W-3L
(0%)
3rd United StatesCanada
NA LCS 		2G+1P 1 team
4W-0L
(100%) 		1 team
3W-2L
(60%) 		3 teams
8W-10L
(44.44%)* 		1 team
3W-0L
(100%) 		1 team
0W-3L
(0%)
4th South Korea
LCK 		3G 3 teams
10W-8L
(55.56%) 		2 teams
2W-6L
(25%)
5th Vietnam
VCS 		1G 1 team
2W-4L
(33.33%)
6th TaiwanHong KongMacau
LMS 		2G+1P 1 team
4W-0L
(100%) 		1 team
3W-1L
(75%) 		3 teams
3W-15L
(16.67%)*
7th Commonwealth of Independent States
LCL 		1P 1 team
2W-2L
(50%) 		1 team
2W-3L
(40%)
8th Turkey
TCL 		1P 1 team
3W-1L
(75%)* 		1 team
1W-3L
(25%)
9th Costa RicaMexicoPeru
LLN 		1P 1 team
2W-2L
(50%) 		1 team
1W-3L
(25%)
10th Japan
LJL 		1P 1 team
1W-3L
(25%)* 		1 team
0W-3L
(0%)
11th Brazil
CBLOL 		1P 1 team
1W-3L
(25%)*
12th AustraliaNew Zealand
OPL 		1P 1 team
1W-3L
(25%)
13th ChileArgentina
CLS 		1P 1 team
0W-4L
(0%)
14th
SEA 		1P 1 team
0W-4L
(0%)

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "League of Legends Esports Breaks World Championship Viewership Record". Riot Games. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  2. ^ "24 teams complete the lineup for the 2018 League of Legends World Championship".
  3. ^ "The Worlds 2018 Quarterfinals were full of upsets". The Rift Herald.
  4. ^ "Fnatic, Worlds 2018 and the pain of believing". ESPN.com.
  5. ^ "Ranking the League of Legends World Championship finals". ESPN.com.
  6. ^ "League of Legends in 2018 was the World's Most Viewed Esports Game in History – TalkEsport". www.talkesport.com.
  7. ^ "2018 World Championship detailed stats". esc.watch.
  8. ^ Crecente, Brian (November 7, 2018). "Fictional Hologram Band Tops Real-World Charts After Stunning 'League of Legend' Show (Watch)". Variety.
  9. ^ "Watch The Word Alive crush their 'League Of Legends' Worlds performance". Alternative Press. November 3, 2018.
  10. ^ "K/DA comes to life through AR at the 2018 Worlds Finals Opening Ceremony". The Rift Herald.
  11. ^ "RISE is the newest Worlds theme song". The Rift Herald.
  12. ^ "Fnatic, Worlds 2018 and the pain of believing". ESPN.com.
  13. ^ "China's frenzy over League of Legends championship sheds light on esports growth". TechCrunch.
  14. ^ "Ning is your 2018 League of Legends World Championship Finals MVP".
  15. ^ Austen Goslin (December 11, 2018). "The 2018 League of Legends World Finals had nearly 100 million viewers". Rift Herald. Retrieved November 8, 2019. Through purchasing the [Champion Kha'Zix] skin, fans managed to raise the prize pool by more than $4.2 million adding to the $2.5 million that Riot themselves contributed.
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