Worlds 2021 Relocating From China to Europe Amid Delta Variant Surge

The League of Legends 2021 World Championship will be hosted in Europe rather than in China, Riot Games Global Head of Esports John Needham announced Tuesday.

Riot's global esports team, made up of members in Los Angeles and Shanghai, came to the decision after considering "all potential options" due to it opening up the best opportunity for the most qualified teams and their key players to be permitted to compete for the Summoner's Cup. Exact details of the upcoming global tournament's location(s) and dates have yet to be announced.

With retaining the competitive integrity of the tournament being paramount on Riot's list of concerns, the relocation of the event was decided as logistical hurdles continued to emerge due to the surge of the Delta variant of coronavirus.

"With vaccines being distributed worldwide this year," Needham said, "we anticipated a return to some sort of normal in 2021. Well, unfortunately, this hasn't been the case. With the Delta variant, travel restrictions and COVID-19 protocols have been even more complicated to navigate in 2021 than they were in 2020.

"Sadly, we've reached the point where it's extremely difficult to guarantee that qualifying teams and their best players would be able to attend Worlds this year."

Worlds 2021 had been set to feature a multi-city tour in China across Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu and Shenzhen throughout its stages—a multi-location format that had originally been planned for the 2020 World Championship before being held entirely in Shanghai due to the issues that arose with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The last time the month-long tournament took place in Europe, as well as the last international League of Legends event to have a full-capacity crowd on hand, was in 2019. Worlds 2019 kicked off at the LEC Studio and Verti Music Hall in Berlin for play-ins and groups, before moving to the Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid and culminating at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.

Nine teams have qualified for Worlds 2021 thus far:

• DWG KIA (LCK)
• Gen.G (LCK)
• T1 (LCK)
• 100 Thieves (LCS)
• Team Liquid (LCS)
• Cloud9 (LCS)
• Rogue (LEC)
• MAD Lions (LEC)
• Fnatic (LEC)

NongShim REDFORCE, Liiv SANDBOX and Hanwha Life Esports will compete for the LCK’s fourth and final Worlds spot.

Meanwhile, the qualifying teams from the LPL, PCS, VCS, CBLOL, LCO, LLA, TCL and LJL have yet to be set in stone.