On Sept. 25, 2020, Team Liquid of LCS (League of Legends Championship Series) and MAD Lions of LEC (League of Legends European Championship) marked the start of the 2020 World Championship for League of Legends in Shanghai, China. 

Developed in 2009, League of Legends is a team-based video game created by Riot Games where two five-player teams compete in order to destroy the enemy base’s heart, the Nexus. The game has grown exponentially in popularity and is now often cited as the world’s largest export, with an internationally competitive scene.

The 2020 World Championship progresses by going through three different stages: the Play-In Stage, Group Stage, and the Knockout Stage. For a detailed explanation of these stages, check out this video from League of Legends.

Here is a list of the teams from all around the world that played in this year’s championship.

China – LPL (LoL Pro League)

• 1st Seed: Top Esports
• 2nd Seed: JD Gaming
• 3rd Seed: Suning
• 4th Seed: LGD Gaming

Europe – LEC (LoL European Championship)

• 1st Seed: G2 Esports
• 2nd Seed: Fnatic
• 3rd Seed: Rogue
• 4th Seed: MAD Lions

Korea – LCK (LoL Champions Korea)

• 1st Seed: DAMWON Gaming
• 2nd Seed: DRX
• 3rd Seed: Gen.G

North America– LCS (LoL Championship Series)

• 1st Seed: TSM
• 2nd Seed: FlyQuest
• 3rd Seed: Team Liquid

Southeast Asia – PCS (Pacific Championship Series)

• 1st Seed: Machi Esports
• 2nd Seed: PSG.Talon Esports

Brazil – CBLOL (Brazillian LoL Championship)

• INTZ

Commonwealth of Independent States – LCL (LoL Continental League)

• Unicorns of Love

Japan – LJL (LoL Japan League)

• V3 Esports

Latin America – LLA (Liga Latinoamérica)

• Rainbow7

Oceania – OPL (Oceanic Pro League)

• Legacy Esports

Turkey – TCL (Turkish Championship League)

• Papara SuperMassive
  

The first stage, the Play-In Stage, consisted of 10 teams from all regions except Korea. In this stage, the two teams that finished at the top of their respective groups automatically earned a spot into the next stage. The next three teams in each group moved into a single-elimination bracket in sets of five matches to determine the last two available spots. Team Liquid, PSG Talon, LGD Gaming, and Unicorns of Love advanced to the group stage after 20 games and four tiebreaker games in the group stage portion and four games in the knockout stage portion.

These are the groups for this year’s group stage.

Group A – Suning, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Machi Esports

Group B – DAMWON Gaming, JD Gaming, PSG Talon, Rogue

Group C – Gen.G, Fnatic, LGD Gaming, TSM

Group D – Top Esports, DRX, FlyQuest, Unicorns of Love

TSM, or Team SoloMid, who won the Summer Split of LCS, failed to win a single game in this stage, setting a record as a Regional Champion with 0 wins in the World Championship.

After 48 games and a tiebreaker game, eight teams were chosen for the biggest stage, the Knockout Stage. In the knockout stage, the games are best of five.

These are the top eight teams of the 2020 Worlds Championship.

• Fnatic of LEC
• Top Esports of LPL
• JD Gaming of LPL
• Suning of LPL
• G2 Esports of LEC
• Gen.G of LCK
• DRX of LCK
• DAMWON Gaming of LCK

The first game of the Quarterfinals was between DRX and DAMWON Gaming, both from LCK. This game resulted in a surprise by DAMWON Gaming crushing DRX with a perfect score of 3-0. 

Following it was another game between the same region, JD Gaming and Suning, both from LPL. Although the series started off with JD Gaming’s lead, Suning swooped the next three games, advancing to Semifinals with a score of 3-1. 

The next game was played between the first League of Legends Worlds Champions, Fnatic, and Top Esports of LPL. Fnatic appeared to be winning when they won two games in a row; however, Top Esports came back with a reverse sweep, finishing the series with a score of 3-2 and advancing to the Semifinals.

The last game of the Quarterfinals was between Gen.G of LCK and G2 Esports of LEC. Unfortunately for Gen.G, G2 Esports took out the former with a perfect score of 3-0. After their victory, G2 had their ceremony on the stage by physically picking up and shaking their mid-laner, Caps.

Then came the Semifinals, the last obstacle for these four teams to pass before achieving their dreams, the Worlds Finals. The Semifinals matchups were Suning vs Top Esports and DAMWON Gaming vs G2 Esports.

From here, DAMWON Gaming’s record-setting games started.

Now in the first game of the semifinals, DAMWON Gaming crushed Europe’s top seed, G2 Esports. In the decisive Game 4 victory over G2, DAMWON recorded the quickest victory in world championship history with a time of 19 minutes and 3 seconds. After securing their victory, DAMWON Gaming “revenged” Gen.G’s loss against G2 by doing the exact same ceremony G2 did after their victory against Gen.G.

Crushing Top Esports 3-1, Suning advanced to the Finals to face LCK’s top seed, DAMWON Gaming. Suning tried to continue LPL’s glory with a four-year World Champions streak while DAMWON attempted to take back LCK’s glory of World Champions from the LPL. 

Then finally, on Oct. 31 at 3 a.m. PST, in the Pudong Soccer Stadium in Shanghai, China, the League of Legends Worlds 2020 Finals stage was held. 

The stage was held in-person despite the COVID-19 outbreak. There were 6,000 people in the stadium to watch these two teams compete. In fact, this world championship was the first time a live audience has watched a major esports event since the scene shifted online due to the pandemic in early 2020. Marcus Salvador, a sophomore at West Ranch High School, thought that “it didn’t seem as chaotic as previous worlds due to social distancing and mask regulations.”

Before the games started, an opening ceremony was held. The ceremony featured multiple pieces of music from Riot Games’ own music industry. The opening ceremony also featured an AR (Augmented Reality) concert, which let audiences watching from devices see computer-generated models perform in the ceremony. However, many comments and feedback say that this year’s AR concert quality was extremely poor. Christopher Lee, a sophomore at West Ranch High School said, “it was definitely lower quality AR, so it hurt to watch because they are literal pixels.”

After a hard-fought four-game series against Suning Gaming, DAMWON Gaming finally lifted the trophy, Summoner’s Cup. Much of their success relied on their jungler, Canyon, who also earned the MVP Award for the stage. Despite the team’s loss, Suning’s top laner, Bin, was able to set a record by achieving the very first Penta kill of Worlds Finals stage. Matthew Cho, a junior at West Ranch High School who played League of Legends in various tournaments, considers Bin’s Penta kill as the highlight of the event. He comments, “I was ecstatic to see a Penta kill finally happen in a finals match.”

Through this win, DAMWON broke LPL’s three-year champion streak and reclaimed LCK’s throne as League of Legends World Champions 2020.