Seoul prepares esports festival during upcoming League of Legends World Championship

26 September 2023

Later this year, from Tuesday October 10th tot Sunday November 19th to be exact, the League of Legends World Championship will be returning to South Korea for the first time since 2018. The major event will be taking place at three venues in the capital Seoul and one in the city of Busan, and to honour the occasion in a big way, Seoul will be hosting an additional esports festival during the tournament. This way, the city of 10 million wants to position itself once again as a global hub, not just for League of Legends, but for international esports in general.

Massive worldwide interest

We don’t need to tell the esports and League of Legends regulars, but perhaps the more casual readers are not fully aware of it yet: the League of Legends World Championship is a big deal in the world of international esports. It is without a doubt one of the biggest and most prestigious esports tournaments in the world, which can be verified by just taking a glance at the attendance and viewership numbers. Last year’s final alone drew an incredible 18.000 live spectators on top of more than 15 million online viewers.

As a result, hosting the League of Legends World Championship is a major opportunity, especially for a city like Seoul. LoL is hugely popular in South Korea, with Korean esports organization T1 currently still the most successful teams in the tournament’s history with three victories. The return of the tournament after an absence of five years has the country anticipating a huge spike in interest, both online and offline. With a whole additional esports tournament, Seoul wants to capitalize on the upcoming influx of attendees.

Festival in collaboration with Riot Games

To commemorate the event, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has partnered with Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, to transform Gwanghwamun Square into a hub of Esports activities. Not only the World Championship’s final rounds will be hosted here, but also the Play-in Stage and the Swiss Stage, which are kicking off in October already. The only part of the entire tournament that takes place outside of Seoul is part of the knock-out stage, namely the quarterfinals and the semifinals. These are held at the Sajik Indoor Gymnasium from November 2nd to November 12th. The whole circus will return to the capital for the finals though, where the winning semifinalists will face off against each other at the Gockeok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Sunday, November 19th.

“Gwanghwamun Square is not only the center of Seoul, but it is also one of the most historically important places in Korea that already plays host to global sporting events like the World Cup and Olympics as well as various culture and civic events”, says Kim-Tae-kyoon, Deputy Mayor of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Economic Policy Division, “This global event will introduce Seoul’s charm to people worldwide and will also serve as an opportunity for them to enjoy and experience various cultures”.