After the success of the event in 2024, Esports World Cup will return in 2025 with a completely new format. According to the Organizing Committee, Esports World Cup 2025 League of Legends will play from July 16-20, just 4 days after MSI 2025 ends. In addition, the number of participating teams will increase from 8 to 12 with a bonus from $ 1 million to $ 2 million.
With the number of participants increased, the tournament format also changed. First, the top 4 of the MSI 2025 will go straight to the play-off round. In addition, the remaining 8 teams will be divided into 2 pounds, competing in the winning branch – the losing branch to select a single team to enter the play -off round. After that, the teams will divide the pair of plays directly until they find the champion.
Due to the change in the competition format, the way to choose the participating teams is also different. Accordingly, T1 as the defending champion Esports World Cup received tickets directly to the 2025 event, becoming the first team to attend the tournament. Besides, the remaining competitions will depend on the results of the first regional tournament of the year.
According to the notice, the top 2 teams of LCK, LPL, LEC, LTA North and champion LTA South will represent the area attending the Esports World Cup. Thus, besides attending the MSI 2025, these teams will also win the Esports World Cup 2025. The teams in the top 4 MSI 2025 will win the right to attend the play-off round of the event without playing the group stage.
Thus, the LCK area is taking a great advantage when winning 3 teams attending the tournament, including T1 (defending the tournament) and Top 2 LCK upcoming LCK. If T1 becomes one of the two LCK representative teams to attend MSI 2025, the third ranked team of Road to MSI (equivalent to LCK Play-off) will represent the area attending the Esports World Cup 2025.
