2015 League of Legends World Championship

League of Legends World Championship

2015
Tournament information
Location	France England Belgium Germany
Dates	October 1–October 31
Administrator	Riot Games
Tournament format(s)	16 team round-robin group stage 8 team single-elimination bracket
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities) Le Dock Pullman (Paris, Group stage) Wembley Arena (London, Quarterfinals) Brussels Expo (Brussels, Semifinals) Mercedes-Benz Arena (Berlin, Finals)
Teams	16
Purse	$2,130,000 USD (€1,907,194.31)
Final positions
Champion	SK Telecom T1
Runner-up	KOO Tigers
Tournament statistics
Matches played	73
MVP	Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan (SK Telecom T1)[1]

The 2015 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the fifth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. It was held from October 1 to 31 in various cities across Europe: the group stages in Le Dock Pullman, in Paris, France; the quarterfinals at the Wembley Arena in London, England, United Kingdom; the semifinals in the Brussels Expo in Brussels, Belgium; and the finals at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany. The 16 teams qualified by either winning a professional league or a regional qualifying tournament.^[2] There was a 16 team round-robin group stage followed by an 8 team single elimination bracket. The games were officially streamed on Twitch, YouTube and Azubu in several languages. The BBC also streamed the tournament online on BBC Three but for British IP addresses only. A peak of around 14 million concurrent viewers watched the finals, according to official sources.

Teams

The following teams qualified to participate in the tournament's group stage:^[3]

Region		League		Path	Team	ID	Pool
Europe		EU LCS		Summer Champion	Fnatic	FNC	1
				Most Championship Points	H2k-Gaming	H2K	2
				Regional Finals Winner	Origen	OG	3
China		LPL		Most Championship Points	LGD Gaming	LGD	1
				Regional Finals 1st-place	EDward Gaming	EDG	2
				Regional Finals 2nd-place	Invictus Gaming	IG
North America		NA LCS		Summer Champion	Counter Logic Gaming	CLG	1
				Most Championship Points	Team SoloMid	TSM	2
				Regional Finals Winner	Cloud9	C9	3
South Korea		LCK		Summer Champion	SK Telecom T1	SKT	1
				Most Championship Points	KOO Tigers	KOO	2
				Regional Finals Winner	KT Rolster	KT
TW/HK/MO		LMS		Summer Champion	ahq e-Sports Club	AHQ	2
				Regional Finals Winner	Flash Wolves	FW
Wildcard	Brazil	CBLOL	IWCT	CBLOL Winter Champion ►IWCT Chile Winner	paiN Gaming	PNG	3
	Southeast Asia	GPL		GPL Regional Finals Winner ►IWCT Turkey Winner	Bangkok Titans	BKT	3

Venues

Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin were the four cities chosen to host the competition.

Paris, France	London, England, UK	Brussels, Belgium	Berlin, Germany
Group Stage	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
Le Dock Pullman	Wembley Arena	Brussels Expo	Mercedes-Benz Arena
Capacity: 3,500	Capacity: 12,500	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 17,000
Paris	London	Brussels	Berlin

Group stage

The group stage was played in a best of one double round-robin format, with the top two teams from each of the four groups advancing to the knockout stage, for a total of eight teams. The group stage started on October 1 in Le Dock Pullman, Paris and concluded on October 11.^[3] In Group B, ahq e-Sports Club and Cloud9 both ended in a 3–3 tie, resulting in a tiebreaker won by ahq e-Sports Club to win second place in the group.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Flash Wolves	6	4	2	.667	Advance to knockouts
2	KOO Tigers	6	4	2	.667
3	Counter Logic Gaming	6	2	4	.333
4	paiN Gaming	6	2	4	.333

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Fnatic	6	4	2	.667	Advance to knockouts
2	ahq e-Sports Club	7	4	3	.571
3	Cloud9	7	3	4	.429
4	Invictus Gaming	6	2	4	.333

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	SK Telecom T1	6	6	0	1.000	Advance to knockouts
2	Edward Gaming	6	4	2	.667
3	H2k-Gaming	6	2	4	.333
4	Bangkok Titans	6	0	6	.000

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	KT Rolster	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	Origen	6	4	2	.667
3	LGD Gaming	6	2	4	.333
4	Team SoloMid	6	1	5	.167

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Knockout stage

Wembley Arena stage during the Flash Wolves versus Origen game

The bracket stage started on October 15 in Wembley Arena in London, continued to Brussels Expo in Brussels, and concluded on October 31 with the grand finals hosted in Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin.^[4] The knockout stage has been streamed on BBC Three,^[5] while the final will be streamed on ESPN3.^[6] The bracket stage is played in a best of 5 format. In the grand final, SK Telecom T1 beat KOO Tigers 3 to 1, dropping their only game of the whole tournament.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

15 October – Wembley Arena

Flash Wolves

1

24 October – Brussels Expo

Origen

3

Origen

0

16 October – Wembley Arena

SK Telecom T1

3

SK Telecom T1

3

31 October – Mercedes-Benz Arena

ahq e-Sports Club

0

SK Telecom T1

3

17 October – Wembley Arena

KOO Tigers

1

Fnatic

3

25 October – Brussels Expo

EDward Gaming

0

Fnatic

0

18 October – Wembley Arena

KOO Tigers

3

KT Rolster

1

KOO Tigers

3

Final standings

Players for SK Telecom T1 holding the championship trophy

Place	Team	Prize money[7]
1st	SK Telecom T1	$1,000,000
2nd	KOO Tigers	$250,000
3rd–4th	Fnatic	$150,000
	Origen
5–8th	ahq e-Sports Club	$75,000
	EDward Gaming
	Flash Wolves
	KT Rolster
9–11th	Cloud9	$45,000
	H2k-Gaming
	LGD Gaming
12–13th	paiN Gaming	$35,000
	Counter Logic Gaming
14–16th	Bangkok Titans	$25,000
	Invictus Gaming
	Team SoloMid

Viewership numbers

The final was expected to have over 30 million people streaming it online.^[8] The finals were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers.^[9]

Controversies

Obscenity incident

During the final day of the group stage in Paris, Cloud9's Hai "Hai" Lam made an obscene gesture towards an opponent while on stage. Hai was fined €500.^[10]

Technical issues

In game 2 of the quarterfinals between Fnatic and EDward Gaming, an in-game bug occurred to Fnatic's Kim "Reignover" Ui-Jin which prevented the game from continuing, forcing the game to be remade from scratch. EDG lost 0–3 to FNC, but because the remade of game 2, in which FNC had an advantage over EDG, EDG was taunted "lost 0–4 in a BO5" in China. After investigating the issue, Riot Games chose to disable Gragas, the champion Reignover was playing, for the rest of the tournament, along with Lux and Ziggs, champions who were deemed susceptible to the same issue.^[11]

References

1. Magrino, Tom (October 31, 2015). "SKT rises above KOO Tigers 3–1 to become the 2015 World Champion". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on November 9, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
2. "League of Legends World Championships: What you need to know". BBC. October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
3. Fields, Frank (September 7, 2015). "Everything you need to know about the 2015 World Championship". Retrieved September 15, 2015.
4. "2015 World Championship Venues | LoL Esports". Retrieved April 9, 2015.
5. Ward, Mark (October 16, 2015). "League of Legends makes global gains". BBC. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
6. "Team CLG Gets Focused - League of Legends Finals - ESPN".
7. "2015 World Championship Rules" (PDF). Riot Games. July 7, 2015. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
8. Ramgobin, Ryan (October 30, 2015). "SKT rises above KOO Tigers 3–1 to become the 2015 World Champion". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
9. "League of Legends 2015 ChampionShip Saw 334 million Unique Impressions | SegmentNext". 10 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
10. Leigh, Hunter (October 21, 2015). "Competitive Ruling: C9 Hai". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on November 9, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
11. Leigh, Hunter (October 18, 2015). "Gragas Disabled for Rest of Worlds 2015". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on October 19, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.

External links

Media related to 2015 League of Legends World Championship at Wikimedia Commons

• Official information