League of Legends: Season 2 World Championship

Last updated
Season 2 World Championship
2012
LoL S2 champsionship logo.png
Tournament information
Sport League of Legends
Location Los Angeles, California
DatesOctober 4–October 13
Administrator Riot Games
Venue(s) Galen Center
Teams12
Purse US$2,000,000
Final positions
Champion Taipei Assassins
Runner-up Azubu Frost
Tournament statistics
Matches played31
  2011
2013  

The League of Legends: Season 2 World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends , held from October 4 to October 13, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. It was the second iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament was won by Taipei Assassins who defeated Azubu Frost 3–1 in the final.

Contents

Background

Taipei Assassins, the champions of season 2 Taipei Assassins at LoL World Championship (2) 2012.jpg
Taipei Assassins, the champions of season 2

After Season 1, Riot announced that US$5,000,000 would be paid out over Season 2. Of this $5 million, $2 million went to Riot's partners including the IGN Pro League and other major esports associations. Another $2 million went to Riot's Season 2 qualifiers and championship. The final $1 million went to other organizers who applied to Riot to host independent League of Legends tournaments. [1]

The Season 2 World Championship was held in early October 2012 in Los Angeles, California to conclude the US$5 million season. Twelve qualifying teams from around the world participated in the championship, which boasted the largest prize pool in the history of e-sports tournaments at the time at US$2 million, US$1 million going to the champions, until The International 2013 beat it the next year. The group stage, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches took place between October 4 and 6. The grand final took place a week after, on October 13 in the University of Southern California's Galen Center in front of 10,000 fans, and were broadcast in 13 different languages. [2] In the grand final, Taiwan's professional team Taipei Assassins triumphed over South Korea's Azubu Frost 3-to-1 and claimed the US$1 million in prize money. [3]

Over 8 million viewers tuned in to the Season 2 World Championship broadcast, with a maximum of 1.1 million concurrent viewers during the grand final, making the Season 2 World Championship the most watched esports event in history at the time. [4]

Controversies

Format

Several top teams missed out on the World Championship, including S1 champions Fnatic and Azubu Blaze. (Till 2022, Fnatic had only missed the Worlds for two times, the second was in 2016.) [5]

Cheating incident

During the quarterfinal round of the Season 2 World Championship, Jang Gun Woong of team Azubu Frost cheated by turning his head to look at the big screen which was positioned behind him. The screen, which presents an overview of the game, is meant to be watched only by the crowd, as it displays elements that are supposed to be hidden from the players inside the game. This led to Azubu Frost being fined US$30,000. [6] [7] [8]

Technical issues

During the last quarterfinal best-of-three match on October 6 between European team Counter Logic Gaming EU and Chinese team Team WE, multiple technical difficulties occurred. Roughly twenty minutes into the second game, the network connection in the arena went down, terminating the live stream on Twitch and disconnecting all ten players from the game, forcing a remake of the game. Then, roughly sixty minutes into the third game, the network went down again. A final attempt was made at finishing the third game, but due to more network outages and technical issues, including a player's defective computer which had to be replaced, the last game and the following semifinals were rescheduled to be played on October 10 in the Galen Center, which was still undergoing construction work. The cause of the connection issues is uncertain, but is suspected to have been caused by faulty hardware. [9] [10] [11] This incident,which was called "拔网线"(lit:unplugging the network cable) by many Chinese LoL fans,was seemed as a conspiracy that denied Team WE from winning the championship, whom later won the IPL5 by beating Azubu Blaze, Moscow Five, CLG Europe and Fnatic.

Qualification

The Participants qualified through the Regional Finals:

Teams

Of the five first seeds of five regions (China, Europe, North America, South Korea, Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau) a random drawing was done to determine which four teams skip the group stage

RegionPathTeamID
Starting in the Playoff stage
ChinaMost Circuit Points Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Team WE WE
EuropeRegional Finals Winner Flag of Russia.svg Moscow Five M5
North AmericaRegional Finals Winner Flag of the United States.svg Team SoloMid TSM
TW/HK/MORegional Finals Winner Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taipei Assassins TPA
Starting in the Group stage
South KoreaSummer Champion Flag of South Korea.svg Azubu Frost AZF
Regional Finals Winner Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin SwordNJS
ChinaRegional Finals Runner-Up Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Invictus Gaming IG
EuropeRegional Finals Runner-up Flag of Europe.svg SK Gaming SK
Regional Finals 3rd Place Flag of Europe.svg CLG Europe CLG.EU
North AmericaRegional Finals Runner-up Flag of the United States.svg Team Dignitas DIG
Regional Finals 3rd Place Flag of the United States.svg CLG Prime CLG.NA
Southeast AsiaRegional Finals Winner Flag of Vietnam.svg Saigon JokersSAJ

Venues

Galen Center for the finals League of Legends Season 2 World Championship finals panorama (8095444017).jpg
Galen Center for the finals

Los Angeles was selected as the host city for the World Championship. [12]

Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Los Angeles, California
Groups and QuarterfinalsSemifinals and Final
L.A. Live Galen Center
Capacity: 2,300Capacity: 10,258
La live downtown la.jpg 11-11-06-GalenCenter.jpg

Group stage

Group A

PosTeamPldWLPCTQualification
1 Flag of South Korea.svg Azubu Frost 3301.000Advance to knockout stage
2 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Invictus Gaming 321.667
3 Flag of the United States.svg CLG Prime 312.333
4 Flag of Europe.svg SK Gaming 303.000
Source: [13]

Group B

PosTeamPldWLPCTQualification
1 Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Sword3301.000Advance to knockout stage
2 Flag of Europe.svg CLG Europe 321.667
3 Flag of Vietnam.svg Saigon Jokers312.333
4 Flag of the United States.svg Team Dignitas 303.000
Source: [13]

Knockout stage

Taipei Assassins lifting the championship trophy Taipei Assassins at LoL World Championship 2012.jpg
Taipei Assassins lifting the championship trophy
QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
AQ Flag of Russia.svg Moscow Five 2
A2 Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Invictus Gaming 0
Flag of Russia.svg Moscow Five 1
Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taipei Assassins 2
AQ Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taipei Assassins 2
B1 Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Sword0
Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taipei Assassins 3
Flag of South Korea.svg Azubu Frost 1
AQ Flag of the United States.svg Team SoloMid 0
A1 Flag of South Korea.svg Azubu Frost 2
Flag of South Korea.svg Azubu Frost 2
Flag of Europe.svg CLG Europe 1
AQ Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Team WE 1
B2 Flag of Europe.svg CLG Europe 2

Source: [13]

Final standings

PlaceTeamPrize money
1st Flag of the Republic of China.svg Taipei Assassins $1,000,000
2nd Flag of South Korea.svg Azubu Frost $250,000
3rd–4th Flag of Russia.svg Moscow Five $150,000
Flag of Europe.svg CLG Europe
5th–8th Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Invictus Gaming $75,000
Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Sword
Flag of the United States.svg Team SoloMid
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Team WE
9th–10th Flag of the United States.svg CLG Prime $50,000
Flag of Vietnam.svg Saigon Jokers
11th–12th Flag of Europe.svg SK Gaming $25,000
Flag of the United States.svg Team Dignitas

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