The biggest event of the year, the
League of Legends World Championship, will begin on October 15 in the United States, and it is an opportunity to talk about the players from the region who will be taking part. As it happens, this year has the highest number
since 2019, with exactly seven players set to represent LCS teams, but not only. They are:
- Team Liquid Sean "" Sung
- LYON Niship "" Doshi
- Cloud9 Robert "" Huang
- Cloud9 Edward "" Ra
- Cloud9 Philippe "" Laflamme
- Movistar KOI Joseph Joon "" Pyun
- Karmine Corp Alan "" Cwalina
The last time as many players from the region attended Worlds was in 2019, when North America sent Evil Geniuses’ Tanner "Damonte" Damonte and Vulcan, TL’s Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, and C9’s Eric "Licorice" Ritchie, Blaber, Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi, Matthew "Deftly" Chen, and Tristan "Zeyzal" Stidam. None of the teams made it out of the group stage that year.
Chances of seeing some of them in the knockout stage this time
This time around, the players arrive with more experience and more competitive rosters than in 2019, and could very well compete for a spot in the quarterfinals. With Cloud9, Vulcan and Blaber are still here seven years later and will have the difficult task of making it through the Play-In. A task which could prove challenging, as they will face Busio’s Karmine Corp, one of the first North American players to make the move to Europe.
As for Jojopyun, reaching the quarterfinals could also prove difficult, as Movistar KOI do not arrive as one of the favorites to make it to the next round. For some hope, the focus should be on Team Liquid and LYON, as Yeon and Dhokla, the region's first and second seeds, could have a say in the competition, especially depending on the draw.
Far fewer than EMEA, though
To compare them with the other regions, North America is only sending more players than Brazil. The CBLOL will be represented by LOS and FURIA, with the two teams combining for just seven starting Brazilian players, while the remaining four are two Argentinians and two Koreans. On the Pacific side, the three qualified teams are sending 13 Vietnamese or Taiwanese players, with the two remaining spots going to an Italian, Zhao "
" Zhi-Qiang, and a Korean, Han "
" In-woong.
Country Representation at Worlds 2026. Credit: Liquipedia
For EMEA, KC have two players, G2 Esports have five, and MKOI have four, bringing the total to eleven. In second place is China, with a total of 15 players. All of these regions are far behind the monster of League of Legends that is Korea, which will be represented by 37 players, accounting for 39% of all players competing at Worlds 2026.