League of Legends: Season 3 World Championship

Last updated
Season 3 World Championship
2013
Season 3 World Championship logo.png
Tournament information
Location United States
DatesSeptember 15–October 4
Administrator Riot Games
Tournament
format(s)
10 team round-robin group stage
8 team single-elimination bracket
Venue(s)3 (in 1 host city)
Teams14
Purse$2,050,000
Final positions
Champions SK Telecom T1
Runner-up Royal Club
Tournament statistics
Matches played63
  2012
2014  

The Season 3 World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends . It was the third iteration of the League of Legends World Championship held by Riot Games, and the last iteration not to be formally titled after the year it took place.

Contents

SK Telecom T1 defeated Royal Club 3–0 in the finals and took their first championship.

Teams

RegionPathTeamID
Starting in the Playoff stage
ChinaChina Regional Finals Winner Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Royal Club RYL
North AmericaNA LCS Summer Champion Flag of the United States.svg Cloud9 C9
South KoreaThe Champion Most Circuit Points #1 Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Black SwordNJS
TW/HK/MOTW/HK/MO Regional Finals Winner Flag of the Republic of China.svg Gamania BearsGAB
Starting in the Group stage
ChinaChina Regional Finals Runner-up Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Oh My God OMG
EuropeEU LCS Summer Champion Flag of Europe.svg Fnatic FNC
EU LCS Summer Runner-up Flag of Europe.svg LemondogsLD
EU LCS Summer 3rd Place Flag of Russia.svg Gambit Gaming GMB
North AmericaNA LCS Summer Runner-up Flag of the United States.svg Team SoloMid TSM
NA LCS Summer 3rd Place Flag of the United States.svg Team Vulcun VUL
South KoreaThe Champion Most Circuit Points #2 Flag of South Korea.svg Samsung Ozone SSO
Korea Regional Finals Winner Flag of South Korea.svg SK Telecom T1 K SKT
Southeast AsiaSEA Regional Finals Winner Flag of the Philippines.svg Mineski MSK
CIS►WildcardRegional CIS Championship
IWCT Winner
Flag of Lithuania.svg GamingGear.EUGG

Venues

Culver City and Los Angeles were selected as the host cities for the World Championship. [2]

Flag of the United States.svg United States
Culver City, California Los Angeles, California
Group Stage and QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinals
Culver Sound Studios Galen Center Staples Center
Capacity: 1,500Capacity: 10,258Capacity: 20,000
Mansion-front.jpg 11-11-06-GalenCenter.jpg Staples Center 2012.jpg

Group stage

The group stage featured ten teams, which were drawn into two groups of five according to their seeding. Teams from the same region could not be placed in the same group, with the exception of Europe’s third seed, Gambit Gaming. The competition was played in a double round-robin format, with all matches contested as best-of-one. When teams finished with identical win–loss and head-to-head records, a tiebreaker match was held to determine second place. The top two teams from each group advanced to the playoff stage, while the bottom three were eliminated.

Group A
PosTeamPldWLPCTQualification
1Oh My God871.875Advance to knockouts
2SK Telecom T1 K871.875
3Lemondogs835.375
4Team SoloMid826.250
5GamingGear.eu817.125
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2014-10-07 at the Wayback Machine )
Group B
PosTeamPldWLPCTQualification
1Fnatic871.875Advance to knockouts
2Gambit Gaming963.667
3Samsung Ozone954.556
4Team Vulcan835.375
5Team Mineski808.000
Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2014-10-07 at the Wayback Machine )

Playoff stage

Broadcast desk during the playoffs League of Legends World Championship 2013 Broadcast Desk.jpg
Broadcast desk during the playoffs

The playoff stage consisted of eight teams drawn into a single-elimination bracket. The quarterfinals were played as best-of-three series, while both the semifinals and the final were contested as best-of-five. The auto-qualified team was matched against an opponent from the group stage, and teams that had advanced from the same group were placed on opposite sides of the bracket, ensuring that they could not meet until the final.

QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
AQ Flag of the Republic of China.svg Gamania Bears0
A1 Flag of South Korea.svg SK Telecom T1 K2
Flag of South Korea.svg SK Telecom T1 K3
Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Black Sword2
AQ Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Black Sword2
B2Flag of Russia.svg Gambit Gaming1
Flag of South Korea.svg SK Telecom T1 K3
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Royal Club0
AQFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg Royal Club2
A1Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Oh My God0
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Royal Club3
Flag of Europe.svg Fnatic1
AQFlag of the United States.svg Cloud91
B1Flag of Europe.svg Fnatic2

Source: LoL Esports (Archived 2014-10-07 at the Wayback Machine )

Final standings

Team Ranking

PlaceTeamPrize money [3]
1st Flag of South Korea.svg SK Telecom T1 K$1,000,000
2nd Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Royal Club$250,000
3rd–4th Flag of Europe.svg Fnatic$150,000
Flag of South Korea.svg NaJin Black Sword
5–8th Flag of the United States.svg Cloud9$75,000
Flag of the Republic of China.svg Gamania Bears
Flag of Russia.svg Gambit Gaming
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Oh My God
9–10th Flag of Europe.svg Lemondogs$45,000
Flag of South Korea.svg Samsung Ozone
11–12th Flag of the United States.svg Team SoloMid$30,000
Flag of the United States.svg Team Vulcun
13–14th Flag of Lithuania.svg GamingGear.EU$25,000
Flag of the Philippines.svg Mineski

Viewership and attendance

The 2013 World Championship final was watched over Twitch by over 32 million people, with a peak of 8.5 million concurrent views, a large increase from the 2012 finals of 8.2 million viewers, with 1.1 millions peak concurrent ones. The numbers shattered the previous records for any eSports event. These numbers were much higher than those of other competitor eSports events for Dota 2 and Starcraft 2, the former of which only reached one million concurrent viewers. [4]

Riot's 8.5 million concurrent viewers is on a par with the "more than 8 million" people that watched Felix Baumgartner's jump from the edge of space. Exact figures for streaming events are difficult to ascertain, but All Things D reports that Baumgartner's jump was "web video's biggest event ever."

League of Legends is by far the biggest entity in the pro-gaming sector, regularly outstripping the stream viewer numbers of its major competitors, including Valve's Dota 2 and Blizzard's StarCraft II. In context, Valve's flagship Dota 2 tournament — The International 3 — took place two months before the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship finals and reached one million concurrent viewers.

References

  1. Although TW/HK/MO All-stars team in All-star Event also represented for Southeast Asia region (both regions are organized by Garena), but Playoff spot was decided for team of TW/HK/MO Regional Winner without competition in GPL because of the championship of Taipei Assassins in last year.
  2. Pitcher, Jenna (September 2, 2013). "League Of Legends finals a sell out at Staples Center, North American regionals conclude". Polygon . Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  3. "S3 World Championship Telah Dimulai!" (in Indonesian). Garena . Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  4. "'League of Legends' eSports finals watched by 32 million people". 19 November 2013.