League of Legends Worlds 2025 preview

The League of Legends World Championship, also known as Worlds, is the biggest event in the game’s competitive calendar. It gathers the best teams across all regional leagues and sees them compete in a multi-stage tournament to crown the World Champion.

Each year, the event takes place in a different hosting region, giving fans the chance to experience League of Legends esports and blend it through culture and entertainment. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 edition of LoL Worlds, from its schedule, teams, prize pool, and the best viewing options for the tournament.

After last year’s edition took place in Europe, the 2025 League of Legends World Championship will move over to China, returning for the first time since 2020, when the tournament took place in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tournament will be spread across three different cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. In particular, the latter was also the hosting city for the Mid-Season Invitational last season, while Shanghai hosted Worlds 2020.

Kicking off on October 14, Worlds will crown its 2025 champion on November 9. Compared to previous years, the tournament’s duration was reduced following community feedback on the momentum kill with the one week break between quarterfinals and semifinals.

Fans can follow Worlds 2025 on multiple platforms:

Many fans opt for LoLEsports.com to claim watch rewards while having access to all the updated stats. The tournament also offers regional broadcasts in several languages, allowing fans worldwide to enjoy the event in their native language while still engaging with the global competition.

A total of 17 teams will be competing at Worlds, coming from the five major regional leagues (LPL, LCK, LEC, LTA, and LCP). Teams are currently still competing to determine the seeding. The confirmed teams are as follows:

Each region will receive three seeds, with the exception of LCK (Korea) and LPL (China), which will get an additional fourth seed following the regions’ strong performance at the Mid-Season Invitational earlier this year.

Korean esports organisation T1 is the most successful Worlds winner, with a total of five titles won across the past 14 editions. 

The 2025 Worlds prize pool has been increased to $5 million from $2.25 million the previous year. While it’s not part of the tournament prize pool, Riot has also introduced a Global Revenue Pool (GRP) that aggregates digital LoL Esports revenue coming from in-game sales and allocates it to teams. 

The prize pool distribution is yet to be confirmed. In previous years, the world champions took 20% of the total prize pool, meaning the figure is expected to be close to $1 million.

LoL Worlds 2025 promises to be another unforgettable chapter in esports history. With China as the hosting region, which is known for its expansive esports culture, and the successes from previous international tournaments earlier this season, this year’s Worlds is set to be another highlight reel as League of Legends celebrates the 15th anniversary of the competition.