After announcing LoL Worlds 2025 is heading back to China, Riot Games has also revealed more news on other international tournaments.
LoL 2025 International tournaments location unveiled
During the Worlds 2025 Media Day, Riot Games’ executives sat with the press to speak about this year’s Worlds as well as sharing some of the news for the upcoming 2025 competitive season.
In a session with John Needham, Riot Games’ President of Esports, Chris Greeley, Global Head of League of Legends Esports, and Paul Bellezza, Executive Producer of League of Legends, the publisher gave key updates on the new international tournament and the locations for the three global events for season 15.
First Stand – The new International tournament
With the introduction of the new tournament, there will be more chances for fans to witness cross-regional play. A single team will qualify from each of the five regions, as every team will get to play a best-of-series against all other regions. Over the course of six days, a winner will be crowned.
The main innovation coming from this tournament is the implementation of the “Fearless Draft”, which bans champions picked in prior games in the series. The event will take place at the end of Split 1 from March 10-16, 2025, in Seoul, South Korea, at the LoL Park.
Mid-Season Invitational – a new hosting country emerges
While the first international tournament won’t automatically qualify teams for the Mid-SEason Invitational, major changes are coming for the second global tournament of the season. Given the reduction of the regions to five, two slots are guaranteed per region, meaning 10 teams will play at MSI.
For next year’s MSI, Riot Games also revealed that Canada will be the hosting country of the event, marking a return after a long hiatus of live events there.
Just like in previous years, the two best regions will get an additional seed for Worlds 2025, which is seeing the number of teams reduced to 17 (from the current 20).
Worlds 2025 heads back to China
Riot Games previously unveiled it will head back to China when announcing the extension of the partnership with Oppo. During the media day, as per tradition, the publisher also unveiled the city that will host the Grand Final next year at Worlds 2025: Chengdu. The city has recently hosted the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational, with great success and interest from Chinese and LoL Esports fans.