Sadly, as typical Riot does, they didn’t release the dates of the 2021 worlds championship. This isn’t a unique occurrence, they usually announce the actual date in the summer.
However, using previous event dates, we can make a fairly accurate prediction on when the worlds finals may be.
The League of Legends Worlds Championship 2021 should start between September 29 – October 2 and end on October 30 or November 6. For a finite date, the data suggests the event will begin on October 1 and ends on November 6.
These dates are approximated based on historical dates. This SHOULDN’T be taken as an end-all-be-all to plan your vacation and book your tickets in advance. That said, I’m fairly confident in these evaluations and undoubtedly using this as a workaround point to plan your vacation several months before they make the announcement makes logical sense. But you can be the judge of that.
In this article, I will go through why I concluded the dates I have, but I’m also very open to feedback and if anyone identifies any errors in my judgement, please send me an email to uzair.hasan@esporthow.com and I’ll make the changes asap.
Warning: All analysis in this article is purely using historical data to determine an approximate date, time and location. Esport How is not liable for any actions taken based on these written dates in the article. This is just to help people, like myself, plan their work and life ahead with our best possible guesses. Riot Games could do a completely different quarter as they did in season 1, and they have full authority to choose any date for no explained reason at all if they desired prior to its announcement.
The Process to Obtain the League of Legends Worlds Championship Dates
There are basically 365 days in the year and theoretically if we pretended we had no idea how the LoL Championship worked at all, we could say this Worlds tournament could be any duration: less than a week or 8-10 months.
Luckily, we know that the worlds doesn’t run during any of the other regional tier 1 tournaments and we know that we have historical data to work off of from previous worlds championships.
We excluded seasons 1, 2 and 3 (2011 – 2013) from our analysis. This was back when Riot was cleaning out their tournament series and as a result a lot has changed, but we did look at that data and it still represented similar trends in most circumstances.
| Year | Start Date | End Date | Duration | Location |
| 2020 | September 25 | October 31 | 37 days | China |
| 2019 | October 2 | November 10 | 40 days | Europe |
| 2018 | September 1 | November 3 | 64 days | South Korea |
| 2017 | September 23 | November 4 | 43 days | China |
| 2016 | September 9 | October 29 | 51 days | United States |
| 2015 | October 1 | October 31 | 31 days | Europe |
| 2014 | September 18 | October 19 | 32 days | South Korea |
From the table above, we can make some key observations:
- Tournament durations greatly vary, from 31 days all the way to 64 days (average is 42.6 days and the medium is 43 days).
- All tournaments start in either September or the first week of October.
- All tournaments end in the last week of October or the first week of November.
- The League of Legends Worlds Championship has already taken place in China twice.
Based on the above observations, we now have a very solid frame to work with. The 2021 worlds could start as early as September 1 or as late as October 5. The tournament can end anywhere from October 19 to November 12.
We should also acknowledge that the event has taken place in China twice. In 2017, the Worlds toured to 4 different venues, while in 2020 they stayed at only 1 due to Covid. It’s extremely beneficial to keep cognizant that 2020 was intended to be what is now the 2021 tour event.
That said, we know all prior Worlds in China started in the last week of September. This is concrete information to work off of, they could honestly do any date, but the fact that when they started planning 2020, it was intended to be what was our 2021, I’m willing to believe that the start date would be fairly similar.
That methodology has its holes, but it’s the most probable to assume if we wanted to really reduce that range. With that said, we can loosely assume that the event would start between September 25 – October 2.
With only the current data we have from the pervious charts, it’s extremely difficult to estimate the exact start date. That’s why we want to now breakdown other factors, such as day, which may influence the outcome.
| Year | Date Start | Day | Location |
| 2020 | September 25 | Friday | China |
| 2019 | October 2 | Wednesday | Europe |
| 2018 | September 1 | Saturday | South Korea |
| 2017 | September 23 | Saturday | China |
| 2016 | September 9 | Friday | United States |
| 2015 | October 1 | Thursday | Europe |
| 2014 | September 18 | Thursday | South Korea |
From the table above, we gained more beneficial information:
- The event never started on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday (to date with the exception of Sunday in season 2).
- Thursday, Friday and Saturday all been dates that the tournament most started on.
- All Worlds series that have taken place in China have started on Friday or Saturday.
Based on this, we can refine our duration of September 25 – October 2 to September 29 – October 2 as the most probable starting dates.
Still, we are in a position where we cannot determine a finite date, however we do know that last Worlds, which was supposed to be this year’s Worlds, started on Friday, so if we HAD to choose, we would say October 1 was the starting date due to the sheer fact that it started on that date last year.
That said, it’s still extremely likely that they could start the tournament on any later day of that week (meaning Wednesday to Sunday). As for the date range, although I feel fairly confident that it’s on the mark, the event very well could start earlier as they may need more time to travel.
Regardless, I stand by my hypothesis and I’m interested to see how accurate it is. I do admit that the start date could potentially be off by a week (September 22 – September 25), but I can’t see myself being more off than that.
As for the ending date of the event, we breakdown our analysis below.
See anything that doesn’t make sense for you or any information you believe we overlooked? Please send me an email at uzair.hasan@esporthow.com.
When is League of Legends Worlds Finals 2021
Now that we have a an overall starting range for the League of Legends Worlds Championship 2021, we now need to determine what the potential duration and end date could there be for the Worlds Finals. After my analysis, I determined the following:.
The League of Legends Worlds Finals 2021 should start between October 30 or November 6. For an exact date, the data suggests the event will on take place November 6 at 6pm CT/6am ET.
| Year | Date End | Day | Location |
| 2020 | October 31 | Saturday | China |
| 2019 | November 10 | Sunday | Europe |
| 2018 | November 3 | Saturday | South Korea |
| 2017 | November 4 | Saturday | China |
| 2016 | October 29 | Saturday | United States |
| 2015 | October 31 | Saturday | Europe |
| 2014 | October 19 | Sunday | South Korea |
From the table above, we again can make some key observations:
- The tournament ended on a Saturday 71% of the time (5 out of 7 times).
- The most recent time the tournament ended on a Sunday was 2019.
- The tournament always ends on the last week of October or the first week of November.
From this, we can confidently take our October 19 – November 12 range for the tournament end (from our above analysis for the starting date) and whittle it down to October 30 or November 6.
This is because those are the two Saturdays that come on the last week of October and the first week of November. Now for a finite date, we need to revisit something we observed earlier.
Tournament durations greatly vary, from 31 days all the way to 64 days (average is 42.6 days and the medium is 43 days).
What this tells me is that we have a min and max dates to work with. With that said, if we said the tournament ended on October 30, the tournament would consist of 30-days (given our starting date was correctly hypothesized).
Even if we started the tournament on our earliest predicted date possible, September 29, it would only then 32 days if we started on October 30; that would cause this Worlds to be tied for the 2nd shortest tournament for Worlds on our table.
Not to mention that the previous 2 China Worlds tournaments, the duration was 37 days (2020) and 43 days (2017). For that reason, it makes me even more convinced that October 30 doesn’t make sense for a final date.
Now if we were to look at the 2nd date, November 6, with our predicted start date, and coincidentally we anticipate a 37-day tournament, the exact same duration of 2020 (which again was initially anticipated to be what 2021 will be).
Even if we started from our earliest predicted date, the tournament could be 39 days long, which is fairly in the middle of the 2 China Worlds tournaments that already have transpired.
Regardless, this makes me extremely confident that the end date is November 6, so much so that I’d be willing to bet on it. In fact, send me your bets through my email right now (don’t seriously).
All jokes aside, I really do believe the end date is correct, but only time will tell. Now, to look at the Worlds Finals start time.
What Time Will the League of Legends Worlds Finals Start
The League of Legends Worlds Championship is known for it’s high viewing numbers during it’s finals and the opening ceremony jusut before the finals. This is the date most of you are likely looking forward to, so let’s determine the best date.
Below is a chart showing all the start times (of the opening ceremony) for the past 4 events.
| Year | Start Time (Host Country) | Location |
| 2020 | 6pm CT | China |
| 2019 | 1pm CEST | Europe |
| 2018 | 5pm KST | South Korea |
| 2017 | 1pm CT | China |
| 2016 | 6pm ET* | United States |
From looking at the table, we learn 1 key thing:
- The time range for the tournament is 1pm to 6pm local time.
Although we have less data on that chart, I believe it’s fairly consistent across the board with the new tournaments that they only really start between 1pm to 6pm of their local time. That’s because the finals are best-of-5 which could take up to like 6 hours, when including the opening ceremony, breaks and game lengths being slightly above average in duration.
With that, we can conclude that the opening ceremony will start between 1pm – 6pm CT (local time).
We also know that 1pm was used twice in Worlds’ history, including once in China. That being said, from the sheer fact that last year Riot games used 6pm, although I know the finals last year was played in a very different circumstance, my loose estimation would be 6pm local time, but I have no strong basis to believe it and that should be taken with a grain of salt.
I’d honestly be surprised if that was right, I’d assume it’ll start earlier than that, maybe around 5pm local time, but let’s stick to 6pm since we are able to bridge this off of something.
Where will League of Legends Worlds Finals 2021 take place
Due to my excessive ability in analytical work, I think I’m willing to take on this behemoth of a question “where will league of legends worlds finals 2021 take place?” Here is what I believe:
The League of Legends Worlds Finals 2021 will take place in Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center in Shenzhen, China, with the data suggesting it will take place November 6 at 6pm CT/6am ET. The city was verified by Riot Games on Jan 8, 2021 during their “Season 2021 Opening Day” video.
As mentioned above, thankfully Riot already gave us the general location; Shenzhen, China. Now instead of having to look through all of China, we can limit ourselves to that city to determine the possible venue.
Currently, we don’t know the exact venue they will be using, but Riot has never hosted Worlds in Shenzhen despite hosting Worlds in the country twice already.
Be aware that one credential that is needed is size. Take for example, during Worlds 2017 in China, Riot Games used Shanghai Oriental Sports Center as their semi-finals. That venue’s capacity is only 18,200 people (I know right, only?!) but their finals for that year was a venue with a capacity of 91,000 (Beijing’s National Stadium, Bird’s Nest).
We don’t know to what extent that finals venue was filled out, but it surely was chosen to accommodate their large local audience base, and I’m sure they will want an even larger stadium this time around (or at least of similar size).
Shenzen is China’s number 1 economic city of China and houses the world’s largest exhibition venue, Shenzhen World.
Do I think Riot Games would use Shenzhen World? Possibly! Although Riot Games usually hosts their Worlds events in sports arenas, to my knowledge I couldn’t find any sporting arenas to that size in Shenzhen.
The Shenzhen Bay Sports Center only houses only 13,000 people in their arena, while the Shenzhen Sports Stadium only houses 32,500.
Let me know if I missed anything (feel free to send me an email at uzair.hasan@esporthow.com), but I believe that the most logical move would be to look at different types of venues that could accommodate the numbers they expect.
So why not use an exhibition space? Riot isn’t a stranger to them at all. In season 1, they used Elmia (conference center and this was with DreamHack), in 2014 they used the Singapore EXPO and Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, in 2016 they used Brussels Expo, in 2018 they used Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (again) and in 2019 they used Palacio Vistalegre (a multipurpose space).
I do admit, Riot has never used this kind of venue FOR their finals, they’ve only used it before in their groups, quarterfinals and semi finals. I’m not even completely sure what the internals of the venue looks like.
But I’d be damned if Riot Games didn’t take this opportunity to run it’s 10 year anniversary event (obviously as this was intended in 2020) in the world’s largest exhibition space to make a statement of how far League has come.
Those are my thoughts at least for the venue goes.
Conclusion
Regardless of these predictions were on right-on or somewhat off, this should be a good guide for you, your family, your friends and your work to at least start planning your trip 10 months in advance. I know that’s what I’m doing with this information.
Again, if you see anything you disagree with, feel free to shoot me an email at uzair.hasan@esporthow.com.
I cannot wait to watch Worlds, and I hope to see you there on November 6 at 6 pm CT!
