Riot Games announced today a continental-wide event for the 2022 Worlds. With Worlds being held in North America, the team decided to expand its reach to different cities across the continent.
In a press conference hosted by Riot Games, Esports President John Needham and Naz Aletaha, Global Head of LoL Esports, alongside Chris Greeley, Head of Esports, North America and Oceania Pacific and Martin Blaquier, Head of Esports, Latin America outlined the multi-city tour.
Starting with the Play-In Stage, Play-Ins will be broadcasted from LoL Esports’ Liga Latinoamerica (LLA) competition arena in Mexico City, Mexico. This is the first international event to take place in the Latin American region.
From there, Worlds returns to the Big Apple where both the Group Stage and Quarterfinals will be held at the Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden. This marks the second time Worlds has been located in New York City as the 2016 Worlds Semifinals took place between SK Telecom T1 and the ROX Tigers.
The semifinals will be held at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. The arena, also home to the Toronto Maple Leafs, will be the first time that Canada hosts the World Championship.
2022 Worlds Finals
Finally, the Chase Arena in San Francisco will host the 2022 Worlds Finals. This marks the tenth unique finals location. The most recent Worlds Finals venues include the Laugardalshöll Sport Center in Reykjavík, Iceland (2021), SAIC Motor Pudong Arena in China (2020), AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France (2019), Incheon Munhak Stadium in Incheon, South Korea (2018), Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China (2017), and the Staples Center in Los Angeles (2016).
The press conference also outlined the viewership from Worlds 2021. According to a press release from Riot Games “this year’s Finals match saw an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 30,604,255, a 32.82% increase over 2020 (a previous all-time high), and 73,860,742 Peak Concurrent Viewers (PCU), a 60.33% increase over 2020.”
