League of Legends Worlds 2025: Schedule, Format, Teams, and More

With Worlds 2025 approaching, here is what you need to know about the upcoming tournament.

The League of Legends Esports season is coming to an end. The Playoffs for the Summer Split of every region have ended, and the only major tournament that remains is the League of Legends World Championship.

League of Legends World Championship is the biggest tournament of the year, where the best teams from all around the world will be competing for the chance to win the title of the League of Legends World Champion.

This year, a total of 17 teams will be participating in the tournament, and it will be held in China this year. The Play-In and Swiss Stage will be held in Beijing, while the later part of the tournament will be held in Shanghai and Chengdu.

That said, with Worlds 2025 starting in a little over a week, we have a lot to cover about the tournament. So, here is what we currently know about Worlds 2025 thus far.

Read More: League of Legends Worlds Patch Notes

Worlds 2025 Format

Firstly, let’s start with the format for Worlds 2025. Similar to the last Worlds, Worlds 2025 will be divided into three stages. These are the Play-In Stage, the Swiss Stage, and the Knockout Stage. Here’s a breakdown of each of these stages,

Play-In Stage

Unlike previous Worlds, there will be only two teams participating in the Play-In Stage this year. These two teams are the fourth seed of China’s LPL, IG, and Korea’s fourth seed and the previous year’s Worlds champion, T1.

Both these teams will be fighting on October 14, in a best-of-five elimination series to decide who will join the other 15 teams.

Swiss Stage

The Swiss Stage is once again returning to Worlds. There will be 16 teams in this Stage, and all the teams will be divided into three tiers.

Tier 1 will contain five #1 seeds from each region. Tier 2 will have six teams total, five #2 seeds from each region, and the #3 seed from the Play-In winner’s region. Finally, Tier 3 will have five teams, the remaining #3 seeds, and the Play-In winner. Additionally, no team will play a team from their own region in the first round.

The matchups for these teams will be,

• Tier 1 vs Tier 3
• Tier 2 vs Tier 2

Following the first round of play, there will be another draw for the second round to pair teams with the same record against one another – this time with no further draw restrictions. Like previous years, teams will not be placed in rematches against previous opponents.

The tournament will repeat this process for three more rounds of play, pitting teams with even records against each other until they reach three wins to advance, or three losses to be eliminated from the competition. 

Swiss Stage will start on the 15th of October and end on October 24th. Each of the Swiss Stage matches will be held in Beijing.

Knockout Stage

A total of eight teams will be qualifying for the Knockout Stage. Unlike the previous stages, the Knockout Stage will be played in the best-of-five Fearless format and will include Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals.

All the teams with a 3-0 record in the Swiss Stage will play against teams with a 3-2 record. The rest of the teams will be drawn to play each other. It is a single elimination bracket of all these eight teams, where the Winner of the Finals winner.

The Quarterfinals will be held from October 28-31, while the Semifinals will be held from November 1-2. Finally, the Finals will be held on the 9th of November in Chengdu.

Worlds 2025 Teams

A total of 17 teams will be participating in this tournament. All the teams participating in the tournament are as follows,

KOREA – LCK

• Gen.G (GEN)
• Hanwha Life Esports (HLE)
• KT Rolster (KT)
• T1 (T1)

CHINA – LPL

• Bilibili Gaming (BLG)
• Anyone’s Legend (AL)
• Top Esports (TES)
• Invictus Gaming (IG)

EMEA – LEC

• G2 Esports (G2)
• Movistar KOI (MKOI)
• Fnatic (FNC)

AMERICAS – LTA

• FlyQuest (FLY)
• Vivo Keyd Stars (VKS)
• 100 Thieves (100T)

ASIA PACIFIC – LCP

• CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO)
• Team Secret Whales (TSW)
• PSG Talon (PSG)

Schedule

Here are all the dates with the local time for all parts of the tournament.

• Play-In Stage: Tuesday, October 14, 4 p.m. CST / 10 a.m. CET / 1 a.m. PT.
• Swiss Stage: October 15-25, 4 p.m. CST / 10 a.m. CET / 1 a.m. PT
  • Wednesday, October 15 – 1 p.m. CST / 7 a.m. CET / 10 p.m. PT Oct. 14
  • Thursday, October 16 – 1 p.m. CST / 7 a.m. CET / 10 p.m. PT Oct. 15
  • Saturday, October 25 – 1 p.m. CST / 7 a.m. CET / 10 p.m. PT Oct. 14
• Knockout Stage: October 28- November 20, 3 p.m. CST / 9 a.m. CEST / 12 am PT
• Finals: November 9 at 3 p.m. CST / 9 a.m. CEST / 12 am PT

For more information, check out the LoL Esports website.