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2025 League of Legends World Championship final

2025 League of Legends World Championship Final
The Dong'an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Gymnasium (pictured on the right) will host the final series.
Date9 November 2025 (2025-11-09)
VenueDong'an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Gymnasium,
Chengdu, China
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The 2025 League of Legends World Championship Final is an upcoming League of Legends (LoL) esports series on 9 November 2025 at the Dong'an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Gymnasium in Chengdu, China, marking the fifteenth final of a LoL World Championship and the first championship series to take place under the new three-split structure and competitive calendar for the game's esports ecosystem implemented by the game's developer Riot Games since 2025.[1][2]

It will be the first China-hosted World Championship final in an indoor arena as the previous two editions of the event held in the country were held in stadiums – 2017 at the Beijing National Stadium, and 2020 at the Pudong Football Stadium.

The series will be a best of five and will be the first World Championship final to feature the Fearless Draft format, after it was implemented by Riot Games for the rest of the 2025 competitive calendar as a result of "overwhelming" positive feedback during the first split and the 2025 First Stand Tournament.[3]

Background

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Main article: League of Legends
The game's main map. It is a square, with the team bases on the top right and bottom right corners. There are three pathways to each base: one diagonally across the centre, and the others going up and turning at the top left and bottom right corners.
A simplified representation of Summoner's Rift. The yellow paths are the "lanes" down which minions march; blue and red dots represent turrets. The fountains are the dark areas within each base, and are beside each Nexus. The dotted black line indicates the river.

League of Legends is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed by Riot Games.[4] Each year, Riot hosts a World Championship (Worlds) featuring the most successful teams globally throughout the year-long season.[5] The 2025 Worlds, the fifteenth edition of the World Championship, as with its predecessors, was played on the map "Summoner's Rift", a play-field featuring three lanes defined by their location—top, middle, and bottom—and two jungle quadrants, mirrored diagonally down a neutral zone known as the river.[6] Summoner's Rift is played by ten players, five per team,[7] through an isometric perspective as players control characters, known as "champions",[8] split between five roles respective on their location on the map: top, jungle, middle, attack damage carry, and support. The latter two are both played in the bottom lane.[9][a] The two teams are referred to as red and blue. The red team spawns in the top right and the blue team spawns in the bottom left.[8]

In professional play, players choose their champions during champion select. This consists of four phases: banning phase and picking phase, both of which occur twice. The blue team starts, banning one champion at their discretion. This is then interchanged between the teams until six total champions have been banned, three per team. Blue side then picks their first champion, followed by red side selecting two champions before blue side completes the first phase of picking and banning by also locking in two champions. The teams then begin the second banning phase, starting with red side. The teams interchange until four additional champions have been banned, for a total of ten. Red side also initiates the second picking phase by selecting one champion. Blue side then responds by picking two champions before red side finalises the process by locking in the final champion.[12]

The ultimate goal of the game is to destroy the enemy team's Nexus.[4] This is accomplished through leveling up and purchasing items with gold, the in-game currency.[7] In the lanes there are turrets and inhibitors, defensive objectives for the opposing team to destroy (at least one must be destroyed for the Nexus to take damage), as well as a constant stream of minions that can be killed for gold and experience. Similarly, the jungle contains monsters that reward gold and experience upon defeating them.[7] In the river, there are two major neutral objectives. The Rift Herald spawns on the top side of the river and on death, rewards the team with an active item that respawns the Rift Herald, dealing significant damage to the opposing team's defensive structures. At 20 minutes in, the Rift Herald disappears and is replaced by Baron Nashor. Baron Nashor provides the team that kills it with substantial buffs. On the bottom side of the map, dragons spawn.[7] Random elemental dragons that provide small permanent buffs to the acquiring team continue to spawn until 35 minutes in, at which point the Elder Dragon will spawn that upon being slain, provides the team with a powerful temporary buff.[13] Gold and experience points are also obtained through killing these neutral monsters.[7]

Host selection

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During the media day for the 2024 World Championship Final at The O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom on 1 November 2024, Riot Games announced that the 2025 Final will be held in Chengdu (where the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational had been hosted). The Dong'an Lake Sports Park Mulifunctional Gymnasium was selected as the venue for the finals on 25 July 2025.[14][15]

Pre-series

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Before the finals, it is expected that an opening ceremony will take place, featuring performances from musical artists who had collaborated with League of Legends throughout the year, the introduction of the finalists, and the reveal of the Summoner's Cup.

Notes

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  1. ^ The roles in League of Legends are often referred to in the community as "top laner", "jungler", "midlaner", "ADC" (Attack Damage Carry), and "support".[10] The latter two are conjunctively known as "botlaners".[11]

References

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  1. ^ "LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future". lolesports.com. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  2. ^ "Looking Ahead: LoL Esports 2025". lolesports.com. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  3. ^ Ciocchetti, Cecilia (16 March 2025). "Fearless Draft is here to stay: "Overwhelmingly positive feedback," says Riot's global head of LoL Esports". Dot Esports. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  4. ^ a b Blue, Rosario (July 18, 2020). "League of Legends: a beginner's guide". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 4 September 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  5. ^ Smith, Noah (8 November 2019). "How the League of Legends World Championship became the Super Bowl of esports". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  6. ^ Watson, Max (Summer 2015). "A medley of meanings: Insights from an instance of gameplay in League of Legends" (PDF). Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology. 6.1 (2068–0317): 232–233. In a style common of the MOBA genre, the map consists of three primary "lanes" leading directly from each team's central home base, or "nexus" to the others. In between the lanes is the "jungle" a forested area where other stationary mobs are found. Bifurcating the map is the "river", which as the name implies is a river into or out of which players can travel from the jungle or one of the lanes.
  7. ^ a b c d e Wolf, Jacob (September 18, 2020). "League 101: A League of Legends beginner's guide". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  8. ^ a b Watson (2015), p. 233.
  9. ^ "League of Legends translated". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Learn some League of Legends lingo with these 20 terms". Red Bull. 11 May 2021.
  11. ^ Pickard, James (6 November 2018). "League of Legends: Best Bottom Laners guide". Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
  12. ^ Warr, Philippa (6 January 2017). "League of Legends: Pro draft to get 10 champ bans". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  13. ^ Goslin, Austen (20 November 2019). "Here's how League of Legends' preseason patch is changing dragons". Rift Herald. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  14. ^ Jonno Nicholson (25 July 2025). "League of Legends reveals World Championship 2025 venues and format". Esports Insider. Retrieved 31 July 2025.
  15. ^ "Worlds 2025 Heads to China!". lolesports.com. Retrieved 31 July 2025.