2024 League of Legends World Championship

The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) and League of Legends Pro League (LPL) had three directly qualified teams to the Swiss stage, while the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) and League Championship Series (LCS) had two directly qualified teams. The 2024 Mid-Season Invitational champion, Gen.G, earned automatic qualification to the Swiss stage,^[a] also counting as the additional seed for the LCK. The LPL, as the runner-up region, also earned an additional spot. Four teams from the play-in stage qualified to the Swiss stage.^[2][5]

Eight teams qualified for the play-in stage: The top two teams of the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) 2024 Summer playoffs, the top two teams of the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) 2024 Summer playoffs, the third place teams in the LCS Championship and LEC Season Finals, the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL) 2024 Split 2 champion, and the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) 2024 Closing Split champion.

This was the final World Championship where teams from the PCS and VCS qualified for the tournament individually, as they merged (alongside the League of Legends Japan League (LJL) and League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO)) to form a new Asia-Pacific league in 2025 called League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP).^[6] Additionally, the LCS, CBLOL and LLA merged under the newly formed League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA) for 2025, which had separated North (LTA North) and South (LTA South) Conferences.^[7] The LCS and CBLOL will return to the World Championship starting in 2026 after the LTA was discontinued following the 2025 season,^[8] however as of now this was the final World Championship where teams from the LLA qualified individually.

The following tables show qualified teams and their respective qualification paths:^[9]

Riot Games unveiled its global power ranking ahead of the 2024 League of Legends World Championship. According to Riot Games, Gen.G ranked first with 1,663 points, and Bilibili Gaming ranked second with 1,602 points. Hanwha Life Esports, Top Esports, and G2 Esports followed. T1, the defending champion, was ranked sixth with 1,467 points.^[10] These pre-tournament rankings were known as Global Power Rankings and were powered by Amazon Web Services. There were based on an Elo model that evaluated the overall strength of the team. The goal was to ensure each ranking reflected how well a team would perform and the difficulty of the competition. ^[11][12]

Berlin, Paris, and London were chosen to host the competition. The O2 Arena was announced as the finals venue during the 2023 League of Legends World Championship final in Seoul, South Korea.^[13][14] The Riot Games Arena, and the Adidas Arena were announced as the venues for the play-in/Swiss stage and the quarterfinals/semifinals on 5 January 2024, respectively.^[2]

Berlin, Germany	Paris, France	London, England
Play-in and Swiss Stage	Quarterfinals and Semifinals	Final
Riot Games Arena	Adidas Arena	The O2 Arena
Capacity: 210	Capacity: 9,000	Capacity: 20,000
Berlin	Paris	London

The play-in stage was held from 25 to 29 September at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin. Eight teams were placed into a double-elimination bracket, with Pool 1 teams facing Pool 2 teams in the opening matches. No two teams from the same region were placed in the same half of the bracket. All matches were contested as best-of-three series. Four teams advanced to the Swiss stage as Pool 4, while the remaining teams were eliminated.

Source: LoL Esports

The Swiss stage was held from 3 to 7 and 10 to 13 October at the Riot Games Arena in Berlin, with matches starting at 14:00 CEST (UTC+2). Sixteen teams competed in a Swiss-system format over five rounds. In the first round, Pool 1 teams faced Pool 4 teams, while Pool 2 teams faced Pool 3 teams, with teams from the same region not playing against each other. From the second round onward, teams with identical records played each other, with matchups determined by draw after each round. Teams from the same region could face each other, and for the first time, no team was placed in a rematch against a previous opponent. Teams that achieved three wins advanced to the knockout stage, while those with three losses were eliminated. All advancement and elimination matches were contested as best-of-three, while all other matches were best-of-one.

Source: LoL Esports

The knockout stage took place from 17 to 20 and 26 to 27 October, and on 2 November, with matches starting at 14:00 CEST (UTC+2). Eight teams that advanced from the Swiss stage were drawn into a single-elimination bracket. The two teams that finished the Swiss stage with a 3–0 record were placed on opposite sides of the bracket and faced teams with a 3–2 record in the quarterfinals, while all remaining teams were seeded randomly. The quarterfinals and semifinals were held at the Adidas Arena in Paris, and the finals took place at The O2 Arena in London. All matches were contested as best-of-five series. The members of the winning team lifted the Summoner's Cup, earning the title of 2024 League of Legends World Champions.

Eight teams qualify for the playoff portion of the tournament from the Swiss stage.

Source: LoL Esports

A base prize pool of US$2,250,000 was offered for the tournament. This pool was to be further increased based on sales of an event pass within the League of Legends store.^[15] The prize pool was spread among the teams as seen below:^[16]

"Heavy Is the Crown", performed by Linkin Park, was announced as the tournament's theme song on 24 September 2024.^[17] A day later, Riot Games and Linkin Park released the song's music video, featuring the most recent champions T1 of the LCK, consisting of reigning Finals MVP Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun, Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong, and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok. The video also featured players from the winners of major professional regions during the Spring and Summer Splits, such as Gen.G's Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon of the LCK, Bilibili Gaming's Chen "Bin" Zebin of the LPL, G2 Esports's Rasmus "Caps" Winther of the LEC, and FlyQuest's Fahad "Massu" Abdulmalek of the LCS. Diego "Brance" Amaral of the CBLOL's Red Canids was also included, despite the team not qualifying for the tournament.^[18]

Despite being on tour for their at-the-time upcoming album From Zero,^[19] Linkin Park performed the song as part of the opening ceremony for the final between Bilibili Gaming and T1.^[20] They previously performed at the O2 Arena for their album tour, during which they performed the same track.^[21]

The tournament's official slogan, Make Them Believe, was unveiled on 31 August 2024 alongside a format explainer video on YouTube.