2018 League of Legends World Championship

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]

League of Legends
World Championship

2018
Tournament information
Location	South Korea
Dates	October 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) Seoul (play-in stage) Busan (group stage & quarterfinals) Gwangju (semifinals) Incheon (finals)
Teams	24
Purse	$6.450.000
Final positions
Champion	Invictus Gaming
Runner-up	Fnatic
Tournament statistics
Attendance	Peak viewership: 43.997.815[1]
MVP	Gao "Ning" Zhenning (Invictus Gaming)
← 2017 2019 →

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

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

Venues

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
Seoul Busan Gwangju Incheon

Play-in Stage

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

Groups

• 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.

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

Group A

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

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

Group B

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

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

Group C

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

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

Group D

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

Knockouts

• 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
	B1	G2 Esports	3
	A2	Infinity Esports	1
	October 6, 17:00 KST
	D1	G-Rex	3
	B2	Bahçeşehir SuperMassive	1
	October 7, 13:00 KST
	A1	Edward Gaming	3
	C2	DetonatioN FocusMe	0
	October 7, 17:00 KST
	C1	Cloud9	3
	D2	Gambit Esports	2

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

Group stage

• 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.

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

Group A

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

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

Group B

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

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

Group C

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

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

Group D

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

Knock-out Stage

• 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.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

October 20

C1

KT Rolster

2

October 27

D2

Invictus Gaming

3

Invictus Gaming

3

October 20

G2 Esports

0

B1

Royal Never Give Up

2

November 3

A2

G2 Esports

3

Invictus Gaming

3

October 21

Fnatic

0

A1

Afreeca Freecs

0

October 28

B2

Cloud9

3

Cloud9

0

October 21

Fnatic

3

D1

Fnatic

3

C2

EDward Gaming

1

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

Quarterfinals

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

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

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

Team ranking

• (*) Does not include tiebreaker games.

Place	Region	Team	PS1	PS2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)[citation needed]	Prize (USD)[15]
1st	LPL	Invictus Gaming*			5–1	3–2	3–0	3–0	37.5%	$2,418,750
2nd	EU LCS	Fnatic*			5–1	3–1	3–0	0–3	13.5%	$870,750
3rd–4th	NA LCS	Cloud9*	4–0	3–2	4–2	3–0	0–3		7%	$451,500
	EU LCS	G2 Esports*	3–1	3–1	3–3	3–2	0–3
5th–6th	LCK	KT Rolster			5–1	2–3			4%	$258,000
	LPL	Royal Never Give Up*			4–2	2–3
7th	LPL	EDward Gaming	3–1	3–0	4–2	1–3
8th	LCK	Afreeca Freecs			4–2	0–3
9th–11th	LMS	Flash Wolves*			3–3				2.25%	$145,125
	EU LCS	Team Vitality			3–3
	NA LCS	Team Liquid			3–3
12th	NA LCS	100 Thieves			2–4
13th	VCS	Phong Vũ Buffalo			2–4				1.25%	$80,625
14th	LCK	Gen.G eSports			1–5
15th–16th	LMS	G-Rex	4–0	3–1	0–6
	LMS	MAD Team			0–6
17th	LCL	Gambit Esports	2–2	2–3					0.75%	$48,375
18th–19th	TCL	Super Massive e-Sports*	3–1	1–3
	LLN	Infinity eSports CR	2–2	1–3
20th	LJL	DetonatioN FocusMe*	1–3	0–3
21st–22nd	CBLOL	KaBuM! e-Sports*	1–3						0.5%	$32,250
	OPL	Dire Wolves	1–3
23rd–24th	CLS	Kaos Latin Gamers	0–4
	SEA	Ascension Gaming	0–4
Place	Region	Team	PS1	PS2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (USD)

Regional ranking

• 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	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	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	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	LCK	3G			3 teams 10W-8L (55.56%)	2 teams 2W-6L (25%)
5th	VCS	1G			1 team 2W-4L (33.33%)
6th	LMS	2G+1P	1 team 4W-0L (100%)	1 team 3W-1L (75%)	3 teams 3W-15L (16.67%)*
7th	LCL	1P	1 team 2W-2L (50%)	1 team 2W-3L (40%)
8th	TCL	1P	1 team 3W-1L (75%)*	1 team 1W-3L (25%)
9th	LLN	1P	1 team 2W-2L (50%)	1 team 1W-3L (25%)
10th	LJL	1P	1 team 1W-3L (25%)*	1 team 0W-3L (0%)
11th	CBLOL	1P	1 team 1W-3L (25%)*
12th	OPL	1P	1 team 1W-3L (25%)
13th	CLS	1P	1 team 0W-4L (0%)
14th	SEA	1P	1 team 0W-4L (0%)

References

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.