2015 League of Legends World Championship

The 2015 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the fifth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. It was held from October 1 to 31 in various cities across Europe: the group stages in Le Dock Pullman, in Paris, France; the quarterfinals at the Wembley Arena in London, England, United Kingdom; the semifinals in the Brussels Expo in Brussels, Belgium; and the finals at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany. The 16 teams qualified by either winning a professional league or a regional qualifying tournament.[2] There was a 16 team round-robin group stage followed by an 8 team single elimination bracket. The games were officially streamed on Twitch, YouTube and Azubu in several languages. The BBC also streamed the tournament online on BBC Three but for British IP addresses only. A peak of around 14 million concurrent viewers watched the finals, according to official sources.

League of Legends World Championship
2015
Tournament information
LocationFrance
England
Belgium
Germany
DatesOctober 1–October 31
AdministratorRiot Games
Tournament
format(s)
16 team round-robin group stage
8 team single-elimination bracket
Venue(s)
4 (in 4 host cities)
Teams16
Purse$2,130,000 USD (€1,907,194.31)
Final positions
ChampionSK Telecom T1
Runner-upKOO Tigers
Tournament statistics
Matches played73
MVPJang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan (SK Telecom T1)[1]
← 2014
2016 →

Teams

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The following teams qualified to participate in the tournament's group stage:[3]

Region League Path Team ID Pool
Europe EU LCS Summer Champion   Fnatic FNC 1
Most Championship Points   H2k-Gaming H2K 2
Regional Finals Winner   Origen OG 3
China LPL Most Championship Points   LGD Gaming LGD 1
Regional Finals 1st-place   EDward Gaming EDG 2
Regional Finals 2nd-place   Invictus Gaming IG
North America NA LCS Summer Champion   Counter Logic Gaming CLG 1
Most Championship Points   Team SoloMid TSM 2
Regional Finals Winner   Cloud9 C9 3
South Korea LCK Summer Champion   SK Telecom T1 SKT 1
Most Championship Points   KOO Tigers KOO 2
Regional Finals Winner   KT Rolster KT
TW/HK/MO LMS Summer Champion   ahq e-Sports Club AHQ 2
Regional Finals Winner   Flash Wolves FW
Wildcard Brazil CBLOL IWCT CBLOL Winter Champion
►IWCT Chile Winner
  paiN Gaming PNG 3
Southeast Asia GPL GPL Regional Finals Winner
►IWCT Turkey Winner
  Bangkok Titans BKT 3

Venues

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Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin were the four cities chosen to host the competition.

  Paris, France    London, England, UK   Brussels, Belgium   Berlin, Germany
Group Stage Quarterfinals Semifinals Final
Le Dock Pullman Wembley Arena Brussels Expo Mercedes-Benz Arena
Capacity: 3,500 Capacity: 12,500 Capacity: 15,000 Capacity: 17,000
       

Group stage

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The group stage was played in a best of one double round-robin format, with the top two teams from each of the four groups advancing to the knockout stage, for a total of eight teams. The group stage started on October 1 in Le Dock Pullman, Paris and concluded on October 11.[3] In Group B, ahq e-Sports Club and Cloud9 both ended in a 3–3 tie, resulting in a tiebreaker won by ahq e-Sports Club to win second place in the group.

Group A
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Flash Wolves 6 4 2 .667 Advance to knockouts
2 KOO Tigers 6 4 2 .667
3 Counter Logic Gaming 6 2 4 .333
4 paiN Gaming 6 2 4 .333
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group B
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 Fnatic 6 4 2 .667 Advance to knockouts
2 ahq e-Sports Club 7 4 3 .571
3 Cloud9 7 3 4 .429
4 Invictus Gaming 6 2 4 .333
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group C
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 SK Telecom T1 6 6 0 1.000 Advance to knockouts
2 Edward Gaming 6 4 2 .667
3 H2k-Gaming 6 2 4 .333
4 Bangkok Titans 6 0 6 .000
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)
Group D
Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 KT Rolster 6 5 1 .833 Advance to knockouts
2 Origen 6 4 2 .667
3 LGD Gaming 6 2 4 .333
4 Team SoloMid 6 1 5 .167
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2018-12-18 at the Wayback Machine)

Knockout stage

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Wembley Arena stage during the Flash Wolves versus Origen game

The bracket stage started on October 15 in Wembley Arena in London, continued to Brussels Expo in Brussels, and concluded on October 31 with the grand finals hosted in Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin.[4] The knockout stage has been streamed on BBC Three,[5] while the final will be streamed on ESPN3.[6] The bracket stage is played in a best of 5 format. In the grand final, SK Telecom T1 beat KOO Tigers 3 to 1, dropping their only game of the whole tournament.

QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
15 October – Wembley Arena
  Flash Wolves1
24 October – Brussels Expo
  Origen3
  Origen0
16 October – Wembley Arena
  SK Telecom T13
  SK Telecom T13
31 October – Mercedes-Benz Arena
  ahq e-Sports Club0
  SK Telecom T13
17 October – Wembley Arena
  KOO Tigers1
  Fnatic3
25 October – Brussels Expo
  EDward Gaming0
  Fnatic0
18 October – Wembley Arena
  KOO Tigers3
  KT Rolster1
  KOO Tigers3

Final standings

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Players for SK Telecom T1 holding the championship trophy
Place Team Prize money[7]
1st   SK Telecom T1 $1,000,000
2nd   KOO Tigers $250,000
3rd–4th   Fnatic $150,000
  Origen
5–8th   ahq e-Sports Club $75,000
  EDward Gaming
  Flash Wolves
  KT Rolster
9–11th   Cloud9 $45,000
  H2k-Gaming
  LGD Gaming
12–13th   paiN Gaming $35,000
  Counter Logic Gaming
14–16th   Bangkok Titans $25,000
  Invictus Gaming
  Team SoloMid

Viewership numbers

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The final was expected to have over 30 million people streaming it online.[8] The finals were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers.[9]

Controversies

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Obscenity incident

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During the final day of the group stage in Paris, Cloud9's Hai "Hai" Lam made an obscene gesture towards an opponent while on stage. Hai was fined €500.[10]

Technical issues

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In game 2 of the quarterfinals between Fnatic and EDward Gaming, an in-game bug occurred to Fnatic's Kim "Reignover" Ui-Jin which prevented the game from continuing, forcing the game to be remade from scratch. EDG lost 0–3 to FNC, but because the remade of game 2, in which FNC had an advantage over EDG, EDG was taunted "lost 0–4 in a BO5" in China. After investigating the issue, Riot Games chose to disable Gragas, the champion Reignover was playing, for the rest of the tournament, along with Lux and Ziggs, champions who were deemed susceptible to the same issue.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Magrino, Tom (October 31, 2015). "SKT rises above KOO Tigers 3–1 to become the 2015 World Champion". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on November 9, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  2. ^ "League of Legends World Championships: What you need to know". BBC. October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Fields, Frank (September 7, 2015). "Everything you need to know about the 2015 World Championship". Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  4. ^ "2015 World Championship Venues | LoL Esports". Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  5. ^ Ward, Mark (October 16, 2015). "League of Legends makes global gains". BBC. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  6. ^ "Team CLG Gets Focused - League of Legends Finals - ESPN".
  7. ^ "2015 World Championship Rules" (PDF). Riot Games. July 7, 2015. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Ramgobin, Ryan (October 30, 2015). "SKT rises above KOO Tigers 3–1 to become the 2015 World Champion". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  9. ^ "League of Legends 2015 ChampionShip Saw 334 million Unique Impressions | SegmentNext". 10 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
  10. ^ Leigh, Hunter (October 21, 2015). "Competitive Ruling: C9 Hai". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on November 9, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
  11. ^ Leigh, Hunter (October 18, 2015). "Gragas Disabled for Rest of Worlds 2015". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Archived from the original on October 19, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
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