Riot Games announces China as location for Worlds 2025
29 October 2024
As we write this piece, the League of Legends World Championship 2024 is just a few days from going down in London, in the United Kingdom. On Saturday, November 2nd 2024, Chinese Bilibili.com-owned organization Bilibili Gaming will be challenging the reigning champions, T1 from South Korea, to decide who can call themselves world champions for at least a year. A very prestigious title in the world of international esports, indeed.
Despite not even having finished the League of Legends World Championship 2024 yet, the game’s developer Riot Games have already announced the location for next year’s edition. The LoL World Championship, which is also often referred to as simply “Worlds”, will be held in China in 2025. This information was revealed recently at an event during which Riot Games also announced the extension of their ongoing partnership with Chinese consumer electronics company OPPO.
Host city not revealed yet
Even though Riot Games surprised the millions of League of Legends fans around the world with their early reveal of the playing location for Worlds 2025, but the company was stingy with further details. As a matter of fact, they have not even revealed yet which city in China will host next year’s League of Legends World Championship.
Looking back at recent events though, we can already get a decent idea of what to expect from a LoL World Championship. Back in 2017, the major international esports event took place in various cities, including Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shanghai, with the Grand Final between Korean organization Samsung Galaxy and their countrymen from SK Telecom T1 taking place at the impressive Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing.
In the more recent past, in 2020 to be precise, the League of Legends World Championship was organized in China for a second time. Due to the ongoing corona pandemic at the time, the event was limited to a single city, which ended up being Shanghai. Despite the absence of a live crowd, the tournament became a success as it drew millions of viewers from all over the world.
For next year’s Worlds 2025, we don’t know the city or cities where the event will take place, though. Previously mentioned locations like Guangzhou and Shanghai have grown into significant Chinese esports hubs over the past years, so it seems likely that these will be in the running for a role as host of Worlds 2025. It’s also widely known that the 2017 Grand Final at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium was a big hit amongst fans and players, so we can imagine Worlds 2025 involving the venue again next year.
OPPO extends as global partner
Riot Games revealed China as host nation for the LoL World Championship 2025 during a sponsor event. That event was organized to announce the extension of the collaboration between the developer and OPPO. The Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer has been Riot’s global presenting partner for MVP Awards at both the League of Legends World Championships and the Mid-Season Invitationals since 2019.