Season 2 World Championship
2012
Tournament information
SportLeague of Legends
LocationLos Angeles, California
DatesOctober 4–October 13
AdministratorRiot Games
Venue(s)Galen Center
Teams12
PurseUS$2,000,000
Final positions
ChampionTaipei Assassins
Runner-upAzubu Frost
Tournament statistics
Matches played31

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.

Background

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:

  • China: July 26 – Shanghai, China at China Joy – 2 teams
  • Europe: August 16 – Cologne, Germany at Gamescom – 3 teams
  • North America: August 30 – Seattle, United States at PAX Prime – 3 teams
  • Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau: September 1 – Taipei, Taiwan at G1 – 1 team
  • Southeast Asia: September 9 – Da Nang, Vietnam at Tien Son Sports Palace – 1 team
  • South Korea: September 21 – Seoul, Korea at the OGN eSports Stadium – 2 teams

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

  • The random drawing determined that Azubu Frost would go to the Group stage while the others received a bye
Region Path Team ID
Starting in the Playoff stage
China Most Circuit Points China Team WE WE
Europe Regional Finals Winner Russia Moscow Five M5
North America Regional Finals Winner United States Team SoloMid TSM
TW/HK/MO Regional Finals Winner Taiwan Taipei Assassins TPA
Starting in the Group stage
South Korea Summer Champion South Korea Azubu Frost AZF
Regional Finals Winner South Korea NaJin Sword NJS
China Regional Finals Runner-Up China Invictus Gaming IG
Europe Regional Finals Runner-up Europe SK Gaming SK
Regional Finals 3rd Place Europe CLG Europe CLG.EU
North America Regional Finals Runner-up United States Team Dignitas DIG
Regional Finals 3rd Place United States CLG Prime CLG.NA
Southeast Asia Regional Finals Winner Vietnam Saigon Jokers SAJ

Venues

Galen Center for the finals

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

 United States
Los Angeles, California
Groups and Quarterfinals Semifinals and Final
L.A. Live Galen Center
Capacity: 2,300 Capacity: 10,258

Group stage

  • Eight teams are drawn into two groups with four teams in each group based on their seeding. Teams of the same region cannot be placed in the same group.
  • Single round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
  • If teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record, a tiebreaker match is played for first or second place.
  • Top two teams of each group will advance to Playoff stage. Bottom two teams are eliminated.

Group A

Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 South Korea Azubu Frost 3 3 0 1.000 Advance to knockout stage
2 China Invictus Gaming 3 2 1 0.667
3 United States CLG Prime 3 1 2 0.333
4 Europe SK Gaming 3 0 3 0.000
Source: [13]

Group B

Pos Team Pld W L PCT Qualification
1 South Korea NaJin Sword 3 3 0 1.000 Advance to knockout stage
2 Europe CLG Europe 3 2 1 0.667
3 Vietnam Saigon Jokers 3 1 2 0.333
4 United States Team Dignitas 3 0 3 0.000
Source: [13]

Knockout stage

Taipei Assassins lifting the championship trophy
  • Eight teams are drawn into a single elimination bracket.
  • All matches are best-of-three, except for the final match which is best-of-five.
  • The auto-qualified team is drawn against the team from Group stage.
  • Teams from same group will be on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they cannot play each other until the final.

Source:[13]

Final standings

Place Team Prize money
1st Taiwan Taipei Assassins $1,000,000
2nd South Korea Azubu Frost $250,000
3rd–4th Russia Moscow Five $150,000
Europe CLG Europe
5th–8th China Invictus Gaming $75,000
South Korea NaJin Sword
United States Team SoloMid
China Team WE
9th–10th United States CLG Prime $50,000
Vietnam Saigon Jokers
11th–12th Europe SK Gaming $25,000
United States Team Dignitas

References

  1. ↑ "League of Legends Season 2". Archived from the original on January 15, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  2. ↑ "The League of Legends Season 2 World Championship Live from the Galen Center (TV Movie 2012) - Plot Summary - IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Taipei Assassins triumph in 'League of Legends' world finals". NBC News. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Riot: League of Legends Season 2 Championships most watched eSports event of all time". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2016-07-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. ↑ Sykes, Tom (8 October 2012). "League of Legends playoffs soured by allegations of cheating". PC Gamer. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  7. ↑ "League of Legends tournament cheaters fined $30,000". Archived from the original on May 10, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  8. ↑ "World Playoffs - Rule Violations". Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  9. ↑ "League of Legends Season 2 playoffs Day 3 recap: Network failure suspends play, Riot postpone finale of CLG EU v. World Elite match, semifinals | PCGamesN". Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ "League of Legends season two World Playoffs rescheduled - Destructoid". 10 October 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  11. ↑ CLG.eu vs WE - Game 3 - Season 2 Quarter Finals - YouTube. Riot Games. October 12, 2012. Event occurs at 0:00. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  12. ↑ Sarkar, Samit (September 26, 2012). "League of Legends Season 2 World Championships set for October 13 in Los Angeles". Polygon. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  13. 1 2 3 Shields, Duncan (March 28, 2014). "Classic events revisited: The Season 2 World Championship". GameSpot. Red Ventures. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
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