Worlds 2024 news and Road to London content powered by AGON by AOC | (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)
Here’s a roundup of announcements and some choice quotes from the Worlds 2024 Media Day ahead of the grand final in London, featuring T1, BLG, Linkin Park and news from Riot, with broadcast talent Sjokz hosting proceedings.
Riot announces First Stand international tournament for 2025
First Stand, the new international League of Legends tournament for 2025, will run from March 10th to 16th at LoL Park in South Korea.
It will feature a fearless draft, where once a champion is selected, it will become unavailable for both teams for the remainder of the series.
First Stand will include teams from the Korean LCK, Chinese LPL, European LEC, North American LTA and APAC LCP. More info around the format will follow at a later date.
Chris Greeley, Global Head of League of Legends Esports at Riot Games, said: “We wanted to find something that felt really attached to League of Legends the game.
“We want to see every team play at that event, so you will see LTA and LEC and other teams play [against one another], guaranteed.”
MSI 2025 and Worlds 2025 locations revealed, as regional leagues get format updates
Beginning at the end of June next year, following the conclusion of Split 2, Canada will welcome the Mid-Season Invitational and the 10 qualified teams from the five regions.
After a long hiatus of live LoL Esports events in Canada, Riot said it’s thrilled to bring international competition back to its Canadian fans.
And as for Worlds 2025, that will take place in Chengdu, China.
The news comes after Riot announced format updates for the European LEC, North American LTA (formerly the LCS) and the creation of the League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP).
Quotes from Riot at the Worlds 2024 Media Day
Memebers of the press heard from three Rioters:
- John Needham – President of Publishing & Esports
- Chris Greeley – Global Head of League of Legends Esports
- Paul Bellezza – League of Legends, Executive Producer
The full panel can be found here, courtesy of Pedro Romero:
Linkin Park Q&A panel at Worlds 2024 in London
Rock band Linkin Park will be performing at the Worlds 2024 opening ceremony, alongside other artists Ashnikko, Mars Atlas of Forts and Tiffany Aris.
But before that, they took the time to talk about their involvement in League of Legends and their Worlds song, ‘Heavy is the Crown’.
Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park spoke about synergy between the band’s and League’s fanbases, and how conversations between Riot and the band were natural.
Linkin Park members Mike Shinoda, Joe Hahn, Dave Farrell, Emily Armstrong and Colin Brittain spoke with Maria Egan, Global Head of Music at Riot Games.
The band also lifted the Worlds trophy, posed for pictures and met both finalist teams, T1 and BLG.
There’s a full Q&A from Linkin Park at the Worlds 2024 Media Day here, courtesy of Pedro Romero:
T1 and BLG at Worlds 2024 pre-finals press conference as Faker speaks to Esports News UK
Korean LCK side (and current Worlds 2023 champions) T1 and Chinese LPL team BLG took the stage to speak ahead of their grand final at the O2 Arena.
They also appeared in this excellent pre-finals hype video:
Esports News UK asked T1 Faker about his grandmother and other family members flying out to support him in London, and what this means to him.
Faker said: “I’m very grateful they decided to fly more than 12 hours to get here and support me. So it’s giving me a lot of energy and support.
“Also, I didn’t really get a lot of time to spend time with my family members, but they were supporting me in and out of the game. For example, they were bringing food from the local restaurants and stuff, so it was very nice.”
Regarding the match-up vs T1 and the strength of their opponents, BLG Bin said: “In terms of teamfights and macro, I feel like BLG will do better.
“We’re familiar with T1 and we will look to continue the winrate in the best of five.”
There were many more quotes provided by the players. You can see the vods provided by Strafe and Ashley Kang below:
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
