Last reviewed: 1 November 2026. This hub explains how the League of Legends competitive season and the World Championship are structured. For schedules and results, use lolesports.com; FoxyPulse does not run a live score feed or publish match previews.
The season at a glance
Professional League of Legends is organised by Riot Games around regional leagues. The strongest regions include the LCK (Korea), LPL (China) and LEC (Europe, Middle East and Africa), alongside leagues for the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Teams earn places at Riot’s international events through their league results:
- First Stand — an early-season international event introduced in 2025.
- Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) — the mid-year international tournament.
- World Championship (Worlds) — the season finale in the autumn, where teams compete for the Summoner’s Cup.
Worlds format
Since 2024 Worlds has used three phases:
- Play-In: lower-seeded teams compete for the last places in the main event.
- Swiss Stage: 16 teams play opponents with the same record until they reach three wins (qualify) or three losses (eliminated). Most Swiss matches are best-of-one; matches that decide qualification or elimination are best-of-three.
- Knockout Stage: the eight qualified teams play a single-elimination bracket of best-of-five series, from the quarterfinals to the final.
Riot publishes the exact seeding and bracket rules for each year on lolesports.com.
Fearless Draft
Riot adopted Fearless Draft for its leagues and international events from 2025. Within a series, champions that have already been played in an earlier game become unavailable for the following games. The result is that later games of a best-of-five test the depth of each team’s champion pool far more than the opening game does, and drafts get less predictable as a series goes on. Our Fearless Draft guide goes into detail.
Recent champions
T1 won Worlds in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Historically, teams from the LCK and LPL have won most World Championships, which is why international seeding gives those regions more slots.
If you bet on Worlds (18+)
- Best-of-one Swiss games are far more volatile than best-of-five knockout series.
- Series markets (for example correct score in a best-of-five) multiply uncertainty; the bookmaker margin on them is usually larger than on the match winner. Check it with our margin calculator.
- Roster changes, patch changes and side selection all matter; recent form on the current patch is more relevant than last season.
Betting is for adults only and involves risk of loss. Check that it is legal where you live and see our responsible gambling page.
Sources
Riot Games announcements and rules on lolesports.com; Liquipedia for cross-checking.