The long hard road to the League of Legends Summoner’s Cup

Starting this September 29, sixteen of the world’s best League of Legends teams will face off against each other, waging fierce battle at the 2016 League of Legends World Championship. No mercy will be asked, no quarter shall be given. This is, after all, a fight for what is arguably the most coveted trophy in eSports, the Summoner’s Cup, in one of the biggest events in online gaming. This year’s Worlds will be held across four cities across North America, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in what promises to be a massive event, with millions of viewers streaming the event and some 18,000 spectators attending the Finals at the Staples Center. The party atmosphere will be provided by EDM star Zedd who is producing the soundtrack, but the action will be delivered by the world’s finest Summoners to play the game.

A Brief History of the World Championships

The League of Legends World Championship has only been around since 2011, when it was just one of the events during the European digital festival DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden. Less an actual global tilt than a continental throwdown between the vastly different playing styles of teams from North America and those from Europe, the event demonstrated the potential for worldwide eSports and just how lucrative the genre could be.

The following year, the League of Legends World Championship was now its own standalone event, held at USC’s Galen Center, with a huge leap in audience draw. Almost 7,000 fans watched the event live, with another six million watching from their homes. The massive Summoner’s Cup was introduced this year, a symbol of utter victory, for a year at least, and the goal for every serious League of Legends player worth his salt. Teams from China, Korea, Russia and other countries joined the fray, making the 2012 Championships the first true international League of Legends competition. After the smoke cleared, previously unknown team Taipei Assassins would emerge the victor.

The tournament landscape evolved quite a bit prior to the finals of 2013, as regions adopted league structures in the run-up to the Worlds. This regularity in local events allowed superstar players to come to the fore, including eGames superstar Faker, who was “more or less, immediately perfect at everything.” With Faker in its roster, South Korea’s SKTelecom T1 dominated the competition, setting up the perennial rivalry between Korea and China.

In 2014, the Worlds were held at Ground Zero for eSports, South Korea. The Finals were played before a crowd of 40,000 screaming fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, with the previous year’s runner-up, China’s Royal Club, falling at the feet of Samsung White. While the top two slots were taken by the rival nations, stellar performances by other countries such as Brazil and North America made this a truly international contest.

Despite the migration of top-seeded Korean players to Chinese teams in the run-up to the 2015 World Championships, Korea was the big winner of the year, with two Korean teams, SKTelecom and the KOO Tigers, facing off in Paris. With Faker wielding his legendary skills, SKTelecom proved, for the second time, that it was the team to beat. The 2015 Worlds also proved to doubters that eSports was a massive industry, with more people watching SK Telecom battle the KOO Tigers than the 2016 NBA Finals.

What’s in Store at the 2016 World Championships?

For an entire month, online gaming fans throughout the world will be enthralled by sixteen of the world’s best League of Legends teams as they outplay each other to win the Summoner’s Cup. These teams come from seven regions around the world and have already been divided into four groups.

At the Group Stage, the sixteen teams will play in double Round Robin-style, Best-of-1 matchups. Two teams from each Group will advance to the Quarterfinals stage. From this point on, teams face off in Best of 5 matches in a single elimination bracket until the Finals at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on October 29.

Unsurprisingly, the two teams favored to win this year’s Worlds are from South Korea. SKTelecom T1 has two titles under its belt and, with the world’s best player Faker once again at the helm, the team is nigh indestructible. Nipping at it heels is last year-s runner-up, now known as the ROX Tigers. This team will likely stomp its competition at the Group Stage, though relative unknown Wildcard Albus Nox Luna from the Russian Federation might capitalize on their anonymity to pull out some out-of-left-field plays. China’s Edward Gaming and America’s Team SoloMid (TSM) are likewise strong contenders in this year’s roster. Edward Gaming proved to be unbeatable during the LPL Summer Split where it earned a perfect 16-0 against regional teams, and inertia just might carry it through to the Finals. TSM, on the other hand, is a strong team. However, being grouped with serious contenders Samsung Galaxy and RNG might just throw a monkeywrench into their plans.

League of Legends 2016 World Championship Groupings

Group A:

• ROX Tigers (formerly KOO Tigers), South Korea
• G2 Esports, Europe
• Counter Logic Gaming, North America
• Albus Nox Luna, Russian Federation (International Wildcard)

Group B:

• Flash Wolves, Taiwan
• SKT Telecom T1, South Korea
• IMay, China
• Cloud9, North America

Group C:

• Edward Gaming, China
• ahq e-Sports Club, Taiwan
• H2K, Europe
• INTZ e-Sports, Brazil (International Wildcard)

Group D:

• Team SoloMid, North America
• Royal Never Give Up (RNG), China
• Samsung Galaxy, South Korea
• Splyce, Europe

What’s in a Cup?

The Summoner’s Cup is a massive trophy that weighs about 70 pounds and takes five people to securely hoist it above their heads. Designed by Thomas Lyte Silver in London, the same group that designed football’s FA Cup and golf’s Ryder Cup, is handcrafted out of brass, pewter, silver and gold, with blue accents made out of glass. Over 300 man-hours were spent by a team of eight craftsmen to create it. It was introduced at the second League of Legends World Championships in 2012 and awarded first to the Taipei Assassins.