Riot Games has announced that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland — the same place where the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational was held. The Play-ins will commence on October 5, for five days, and the Group Stage will go on for about a week from October 11. The Knockout Stage will start on October 22, and the Grand Finals will be held on November 6.
UPDATE 9/6: It was expected that Riot Games would provide a statement regarding the 2021 League of Legends World Championship as the company reportedly told Dot Esports last week, but no statement has been made by the developer at this time. Additionally, Dot Esports has published a follow-up report further pointing towards Worlds 2021 taking place in Iceland. The report also includes a schedule for the event.
UPDATE 8/30: Mere hours after Dot Esports' report surfaced, Bloop tweeted an update to the report stating that Riot Games had confirmed that there will be updates this week regarding the 2021 League of Legends World Championship.
UPDATE 8/30: A new report by Dot Esports' Pablo "Bloop" Suárez states that sources say Worlds 2021 will take place in Reykjavik, Iceland. The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational was safely and successfully hosted in Reykjavik earlier this year that allowed for offline play and pre-competition quarantine periods within the schedule due to the event taking place entirely in one location.
UPDATE 08/24, 15:00 CEST
Riot's John Needham confirmed Worlds 2021 will be moved to Europe, but no exact location yet.
Original story:
A report by Upcomer's Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger, Nick Ray, and Parkes Ousley states that sources close to the publication have confirmed that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship will not be hosted in China as planned and will instead be hosted in Europe. “We’ll share official updates tomorrow on our socials,” a Riot global communications representative said in a statement to Upcomer on Monday.
Worlds 2021 was going to be hosted in China across the cities of Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chendu and Shenzen.
This was a result of the 2020 World Championship, which was also originally formatted as a multi-city tour across the country, pivoting to being held entirely in Shanghai to streamline logistics and prioritize safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Upcomer's report, sources told the publication that the change comes after Riot ran into difficulties securing travel for production crews to China, and that the decision was made recently. The report states that League Championship Series teams were looking into visa applications for China as recently as Friday, August 20.
In addition, Hotspawn reporter Tom Matthiesen claimed that he had been told that the League of Legends European Championship representatives for Worlds 2021 were 안전놀이터 informed of the change of host region mere hours before Upcomer's report went live. The last time Europe hosted the League of Legends World Championship was 2019, and before that, 2015.
As of now, nine teams have qualified for Worlds 2021. Three of the four spots reprersenting League of Legends Champions Korea will be held by DWG KIA, Gen.G, and T1. The three teams representing the LCS will be Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, and Cloud9. The three teams representing the LEC will be MAD Lions, Rogue, and Fnatic. No specific seeding has been locked at this time, but Team Liquid, MAD Lions, and DWG KIA will qualify as either the 1st or 2nd seed from their respective regions.
