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Riot Games have officially announced the five host cities for this year's League of Legends World Championship.
Professional League of Legends' most prestigious event will be held across China this fall in the cities of Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. This year's League of Legends World Championship will mark the third time that the event will be held in China.
Worlds 2020 was also held in China and the 2021 iteration of the tournament was initially declared to be headed to North America. But Riot had other plans and later rescheduled North America's turn to host League of Legends Worlds in the 2022 iteration. According to a statement made by Riot last summer:
"We will return to China in 2021 for the full multi-city World Championship tour, bringing the live sporting experience to fans across the country as originally intended. North America will host the World Championship in 2022."
The grand finale of the tour is scheduled to be held on November 6th at the Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen, China, which has a capacity of 60,000.
League of Legends Worlds 2021's final will be held on November 6th in Shenzen, while the commencing date is yet to be finalized by Riot
Last year's League of Legends Worlds was entirely held in Shanghai, and a limited number of fans were allowed to attend the grand finals due to COVID-19 restrictions. The play-in stage, group stage, quarterfinals, and semifinals were each played in closed conditions with no fans in attendance at all.
This year, considering the fact that China's existing COVID cases have come down to a fair limit, 2021 Worlds is planned to be held in five cities with a live audience. According to John Needham, Global Head of Esports at Riot Games:
“We’ve locked in the five Chinese cities after an extremely competitive bidding process, and we’re now ready to deliver on our promise to players with a multi-city tour for the biggest esports event on the planet.”
2017 was the last time the League of Legends World Championship was played in China under regular circumstances. The matches were held in the cities of Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, while the grand final of the event was held in the national capital, Beijing.
Though the date for the final of the 2021 League of Legends World Championship has been scheduled, a start date for the event is yet to be announced by Riot.
