League of Legends: Season 1 World Championship

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Season 1 World Championship
2011
Tournament information
SportLeague of Legends
LocationJönköping, Sweden
DatesJune 18–20, 2011
AdministratorRiot Games
Host(s)DreamHack
Venue(s)Elmia
Teams8
PurseUS$100,000[1]
Final positions
ChampionFnatic
Runner-upAgainst All Authority
Tournament statistics
Matches played21
MVPMaciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak[2]
2012 →

The League of Legends: Season 1 World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends, held from June 18 to 20, 2011, in Jönköping, Sweden. It was the first iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament was won by Fnatic, who defeated Against All Authority 2–1 in the final.

Background[edit]

League of Legends released in 2009, and after two years, it had built a strong community of players around its free-to-play model. However, the game lacked a full competitive experience until the introduction of ranked play and draft mode in mid-2010. Initially, only a handful of people at Riot believed in the future of competitive play, but as data suggested a growing viewership, the company decided to test the competitive landscape, organizing the first World Championship tournament in 2011, hosted by DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden. Players brought their own computers, networked them together, and competed in front of fans.[3]

Teams[edit]

Eight teams qualified for the World Championship: three from North America, three from Europe, one from Singapore, and one from the Philippines.[4]

Region Team
Europe Against All Authority
Gamed!de
Fnatic
North America Team SoloMid
Epik Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming
Singapore Xan
Philippines Team Pacific

Venues[edit]

Jönköping was selected as the host city for the World Championship.[5]

 Sweden
Jönköping, Sweden
Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre
Capacity: 2,000

Group stage[edit]

Group A
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Epik Gaming 3 3 0 1.000 Advance to knockout stage
2 Against All Authority 3 2 1 0.667 Advance to relegation matches
3 Fnatic 3 1 2 0.333
4 Team Pacific 3 0 3 0.000
Source: League of Legends (Archived 2013-01-11 at the Wayback Machine)
Group B
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Team SoloMid 3 2 1 0.667 Advance to knockout stage
2 Counter Logic Gaming 3 2 1 0.667 Advance to relegation matches
3 Gamed!de 3 1 2 0.333
4 Xan 3 1 2 0.333
Source: League of Legends (Archived 2013-01-11 at the Wayback Machine)
Relegation matches
FinalsAdvance to knockouts
Against All Authority2
Against All Authority
Gamed!de0
Counter Logic Gaming1
Fnatic
Fnatic2
Fifth place
Gamed!de0
Counter Logic Gaming1

Source: League of Legends (Archived 2013-01-11 at the Wayback Machine)

Knockout stage[edit]

Upper semifinalsUpper finalFinal
Team SoloMid1
Against All Authority2
Against All Authority0
Fnatic2
Epik Gaming0
Fnatic2
Fnatic2
Against All Authority1
Lower semifinalLower final
Against All Authority2
Team SoloMid2Team SoloMid0
Epik Gaming0

Source: League of Legends (Archived 2013-01-11 at the Wayback Machine)

Final standings[edit]

Place Team Prize money
1 Fnatic $50,000
2 Against All Authority $25,000
3 Team SoloMid $10,000
4 Epik Gaming $7,000
5 Counter Logic Gaming $3,500
6 Gamed!de $2,000
7–8 Team Pacific $1,000
Xan

Broadcast and viewership[edit]

The Season One World Championship accumulated over 1.6 million viewers and peaked at 210,000 concurrent viewers.[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Senior, Tom (April 8, 2011). "League of Legends Season 1 Championship to have $100,000 prize pool". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  2. ^ Kim, Kyeongbeom; Hong, James (September 11, 2017). "Fun Facts from Worlds 2016: SKT T1 Faker dies again and again! The secret to their success?". InvenGlobal. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  3. ^ Smith, Noah (November 7, 2019). "How the League of Legends World Championship became the Super Bowl of esports". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  4. ^ Fulford, Nico (June 20, 2020). "LoL Worlds Season 1 retrospective - Where it all began". GGRecon. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  5. ^ "Ten years of worlds: A League of Legends World Championship oral history". ESPN. September 24, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  6. ^ Cooke, Taylor (October 11, 2018). "How the League of Legends World Championship Shaped an Entire Esport". The Esports Observer. Retrieved November 22, 2023.