After the 2021 League of Legends World Championship was relocated to China, and later to Iceland, both due to COVID-19, Riot Games is finally bringing their premier event to North America in 2022. A couple of weeks after the end of Worlds 2021, Riot announced the locations for Worlds 2022, which will take place across three countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America. Worlds 2022 will have a similar format as previous years, bringing in a play-in stage and a group stage followed by the bracket stage to determine a victor.
The play-ins will take place in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, at the main studio for the Liga Latinoamérica. The group stage and quarterfinals will take place in New York City at the Hulu Theatre in Madison Square Garden. The semifinals will be in Toronto, Canada at the Scotiabank Arena.
Finally, the 2022 Worlds finals will be held in the new Golden State Warriors home arena, Chase Center in San San Francisco, California. The venue has just over 18,000 seating capacity and will be the 10th unique venue to host the Worlds finals and the first in North America outside of Los Angeles.
This will be the first time Riot will hold the international event across three countries in North America, with the first three NA-hosted Worlds taking place entirely within the United States. Furthermore, this will also be the first Worlds hosted by an emerging region during the play-in stage.
This isn’t, however, the first time Riot Games has hosted an event with the Golden State Warriors, holding the 2018 League Championship Series Summer Finals in the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The Warriors have since moved on to the San Francisco-based Chase Center, which will be the venue for the 2022 Worlds finals.
