Worlds 2026: Schedule, Teams, Format and Bracket

Worlds 2026 is League of Legends’ World Championship, played from 15 October to 14 November 2026 in the United States. The field has 16 teams in the Main Event and 4 in the Play-In, and the published placement prizes add up to $5,000,000, with $1,000,000 going to the winner. The event moves through three stages: a Play-In, a Swiss stage and a Knockout bracket that ends with the final. Every series, team and stage is tracked here, alongside the rest of our esports coverage.

History is the clearest guide before a ball is kicked, and one organization dominates it. Nothing has been played yet, so these storylines rest on titles, seeds and rosters, not form.

The Worlds 2026 field has 16 teams in the Main Event and 4 in the Play-In, drawn from Korea, China, EMEA, North America and Asia Pacific. One slot is still open, in the Play-In, where Cloud9, Karmine Corp and MVK Esports are already confirmed.

Worlds 2026 has three stages, and where a team starts depends on its seed. The Play-Ins come first, from 15 to 18 October 2026: the four Play-In teams meet in best-of-five series, so even this opening stage rewards preparation and adaptation over a single good draft.

The Swiss stage follows from 23 to 31 October 2026 and is where most Main Event teams begin. Swiss pairs teams with similar records each round, so you rarely see a mismatch late in the stage. Series here are a mix of best-of-one and best-of-three, which makes the early Bo1 rounds the most volatile part of the event.

The Knockouts close the event from 3 to 14 November 2026. Every series in this single bracket is a best-of-five, up to and including the final, so depth of champion pool and in-series adjustments decide who lifts the trophy.

The first series of Worlds 2026 starts on 15 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC, opening the Play-Ins; all times on this page are in UTC.

The Knockouts bracket fills in once the Swiss stage ends; its first series is on 3 November 2026.