When and Where Worlds Is Held

Worlds moves to a different host region every year, and in 2026 it is North America's turn. The tournament runs for a month across three American cities:

• Play-In: October 15 to 18, Riot Games Arena, Los Angeles.
• Swiss Stage: October 23 to 26 and October 28 to 31, Credit Union of Texas Event Center, Allen, Texas, in the Dallas area.
• Quarterfinals: November 3 to 6, Allen.
• Semifinals: November 7 and 8, Allen.
• Final: Saturday, November 14, Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York.

The format has three parts. In the Play-In, four teams played a double-elimination bracket for one place in the main event. The Swiss Stage has 16 teams: each keeps playing until it reaches three wins, which sends it to the quarterfinals, or three losses, which sends it home. Teams on the same record are paired against each other, and nobody meets the same opponent twice. Most Swiss rounds are single games, but any match that decides advancement or elimination is a best-of-three. The eight survivors then play a single-elimination bracket of best-of-five series. All series use Fearless Draft, so a champion picked in one game cannot be picked again by either team later in the same series.

This year's anthem, "Know My Name," is performed by Riot's virtual group True Damage, featuring SOYEON of i-dle, Coco Jones, Vic Mensa and Sofía Reyes.

Full Schedule With Start Times

Because the event is in the United States, most matches fall overnight or early in the morning in Asia and in the evening in Europe. US daylight saving time ends on November 1, so Texas is on CDT (UTC-5) during the Swiss Stage and CST (UTC-6) for the knockouts. Times in Japan and Korea are the same.

• Swiss Stage, round 4, October 28 to 30: best-of-three series at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. CDT, which is 20:00 and 23:00 UTC, or 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. JST and KST the next morning.
• Swiss Stage, round 5, October 31: three final best-of-three series, which fall on November 1 in Asia. Start times are confirmed once round 4 ends.
• Quarterfinals, November 3 to 6: 4 p.m. CST, which is 22:00 UTC, or 7 a.m. JST and KST on November 4 to 7.
• Semifinals, November 7 and 8: 4 p.m. CST, which is 22:00 UTC, or 7 a.m. JST and KST on November 8 and 9.
• Final, November 14: 2 p.m. EST in Brooklyn, which is 19:00 UTC, 7 p.m. in London, 3 a.m. on November 15 in Taipei, Hong Kong and Beijing, and 4 a.m. on November 15 JST and KST.

Riot can adjust start times between rounds, so check the official schedule on lolesports.com the day before. We update this guide at the same address as each round finishes.

Every Team, Region by Region

Nineteen teams from six leagues qualified. Fifteen went straight to the Swiss Stage, and four played the Play-In for the last place.

• LCK (Korea): Gen.G, Hanwha Life Esports, T1, Dplus KIA. Hanwha Life Esports arrived as this year's Mid-Season Invitational champion.
• LPL (China): Anyone's Legend, Bilibili Gaming, Top Esports, Invictus Gaming. The LPL earned its fourth place by finishing as the second-best region at the Mid-Season Invitational.
• LEC (Europe, Middle East and Africa): G2 Esports, Movistar KOI, Karmine Corp.
• LCS (North America): Team Liquid, LYON, Cloud9.
• LCP (Asia-Pacific): Team Secret Whales and MVK Esports from Vietnam, and CTBC Flying Oyster from Taiwan.
• CBLOL (Brazil): LOS, FURIA.

The LCP is the league for Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam and Oceania. Team Secret Whales won all three of its splits this season and came in as its first seed. No Japanese team qualified this year, as the league's three places went to two Vietnamese teams and a Taiwanese one.

The Play-In decided the 16th Swiss Stage team. Karmine Corp beat Cloud9 3-2 and then beat MVK Esports 3-0 twice, in the upper-bracket final and in the deciding match on October 18; Cloud9, MVK Esports and FURIA went home.

Results So Far and What Comes Next

After the first day of round 4 (as of October 28, Texas time), the standings are:

• 3-0, through to the quarterfinals: Dplus KIA, Gen.G.
• 3-1, through to the quarterfinals: Invictus Gaming, T1.
• 2-1: Bilibili Gaming, Top Esports.
• 2-2: LYON, Movistar KOI.
• 1-2: CTBC Flying Oyster, G2 Esports, Hanwha Life Esports, Karmine Corp, LOS, Team Liquid.
• 0-3, eliminated: Anyone's Legend, Team Secret Whales.

The opening day set the tone. All four LCK teams won their first games, Movistar KOI beat Bilibili Gaming, and Karmine Corp, fresh from the Play-In, beat Anyone's Legend. Dplus KIA then beat T1 in an all-Korean match and swept Movistar KOI 2-0, while Gen.G beat Hanwha Life Esports and edged LYON 2-1.

Round 4 is all best-of-three. Teams at 2-1 qualify with a win, and teams at 1-2 are eliminated with a loss. The first two series are done, and four remain:

• October 28, 3 p.m. CDT (20:00 UTC, 5 a.m. JST on October 29): T1 beat Movistar KOI 2-0 to reach the quarterfinals; Movistar KOI drops to 2-2.
• October 28, 6 p.m. CDT (23:00 UTC, 8 a.m. JST on October 29): Invictus Gaming beat LYON 2-1 to reach the quarterfinals; LYON drops to 2-2.
• October 29, 3 p.m. CDT (20:00 UTC, 5 a.m. JST on October 30): Karmine Corp vs CTBC Flying Oyster, elimination match.
• October 29, 6 p.m. CDT (23:00 UTC, 8 a.m. JST on October 30): Top Esports vs Bilibili Gaming, for a quarterfinal place.
• October 30, 3 p.m. CDT (20:00 UTC, 5 a.m. JST on October 31): Team Liquid vs LOS, elimination match.
• October 30, 6 p.m. CDT (23:00 UTC, 8 a.m. JST on October 31): Hanwha Life Esports vs G2 Esports, elimination match.

The six teams left at 2-2 then play round 5 on October 31, and the three winners take the last quarterfinal places. The quarterfinal pairings are drawn on stage after the final Swiss match. The two 3-0 teams go on opposite sides of the bracket and each meets a team that finished 3-2, so Gen.G and Dplus KIA cannot meet before the final.

Why T1, Faker and the LCK Matter

The biggest story of the tournament is T1. The Korean team won Worlds in Seoul in 2023, in London in 2024 and in Chengdu in 2025, the last one a 3-2 final against KT Rolster, and no team has ever won four in a row. Faker, T1's mid laner, already holds six world titles. This year he plays alongside Doran, Oner, Peyz and Keria; Peyz is the new bottom laner, while Gumayusi, part of all three title runs, now plays for Hanwha Life Esports. T1 came in as Korea's third seed, which is why the four-peat is a real question rather than an assumption. After a round 2 loss to Dplus KIA, T1 swept Movistar KOI 2-0 on October 28 to reach the quarterfinals, three best-of-five series away from a fourth straight title.

The LCK's record explains why so many fans watch Korean teams first. Of the 15 world championships played between 2011 and 2025, Korean teams won 10, and the league has also won the last three Mid-Season Invitationals. Behind that is a deep system: neighborhood PC rooms that made the game part of everyday life, academy teams, full-time coaching staffs and a permanent league arena in central Seoul.

Korea also shows up in the music. SOYEON of i-dle sings a Korean verse on this year's anthem, and NewJeans performed the anthem in 2023, the year the final was held in Seoul.

How to Watch Online, Tickets and Watching From Seoul

Worldwide, in English. Every match streams live and free on lolesports.com and on the LoL Esports channels on YouTube and Twitch, with full VODs and highlights posted afterward.

In other languages. Riot runs official broadcasts in many languages alongside the English stream. LoL Esports JP carries a Japanese-language broadcast, LoLEsportsTW a Chinese-language one, and the LCK's official channels a Korean one. Viewers in mainland China should check the LPL's official announcements for local platforms.

Tickets. Ticket information for every stage is on lolesports.com, and the Barclays Center final drew heavy demand. If you hope to go in person, buy only through the official sellers listed there and be wary of resale listings.

If you are in Seoul for the final. The final starts at 4 a.m. on Sunday, November 15, Korea time. In Korea, the platform CHZZK streams the event with Korean commentary on the LCK channel and English commentary on LCK Global. No official public viewing in Seoul had been announced at the time of writing; we will add one here if it is confirmed. The days around the final are a good time to see the scene in person: catch a league match day at LoL Park, the LCK's home arena, with our LoL Park guide, visit T1's fan spaces with our T1 Base Camp guide, or play a few rounds yourself with our guide to Korean PC bangs.