League of Legends 2026 EWC: Schedule, All Teams

The Esports World Cup’s annual League of Legends event is coming up soon. Here’s everything to know about the tournament, including its teams, prize pool, format, schedule, and more.

League of Legends at the 2026 Esports World Cup

The Esports World Cup (EWC) is a multi-game esports tournament where individual teams compete for the highest rank among all titles. The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) founded it in 2024, and the tournament now includes over 21 competitions. It is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The EWC is well known for having one of the largest prize pools in the industry. Alongside older esports titles like Counter-Strike and DOTA 2, the tourney struck up a partnership with Riot Games in 2025. This deal added League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and VALORANT to the mix.

South Korean team T1 won the inaugural EWC League of Legends event in 2024. Last year, Gen.G emerged victorious from the 2025 Grand Finals, beating out AG.AL (All Gamers) after a close matchup.

What League Team is Best at the 2026 Esports World Cup?

All 3 of these competitors will return in 2026, among a total count of 16 teams. Gen.G is still a fierce opponent, especially since they’ve also had back-to-back Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) wins in 2024 and 2024. The org placed highly at Worlds 2025, and steamrolled at the LCK Cup 2026.

T1 is coming off a Worlds 2025 win, adding to its record-breaking accomplishments (Riot Games even released a Riftbound set to celebrate the occasion). Though the org struggled for a bit, it seems to have once again found its stride. Bilibili Gaming is also a team to watch, as they won the 2026 First Stand event and beat G2 Esports.

League of Legends is a notoriously Asia-dominated esports title. G2 is one of the strongest European orgs, and one of the few that has proven they can consistently stand up to inter-region competition. G2 is known for storming through the LEC, and in 2026 alone, it has placed first in LEC Versus, LEC Spring, and the Esports World Cup qualifier. Plus, they placed second in First Stand. Will G2’s placement streak continue?

How Big is the League of Legends 2026 EWC Prize Pool?

The League of Legends 2026 EWC prize pool includes 2 million USD in total. The EWC divides this amount amongst the top-performing teams, staggering by placement.

• 1st Place: 600,000 USD
• 2nd Place: 340,000 USD
• 3rd Place: 220,000 USD
• 4th Place: 140,000 USD
• 5th-8th place: 90,000 USD

League of Legends EWC Format and Groups

The Esports World Cup’s League of Legends tournament has two main phases: the Group Stage and the Playoffs. During the Group Stage, the EWC divides teams into four clusters. Seeding depends on their performance. Group Stage matches are in a double-elimination, best-of-1 bracket. Here’s a quick refresher of the Group Stage seeds:

Group A

• G2 Esports
• FURIA
• AG.AL
• Dplus

Group B

• Team Secret
• Sentinels
• Gen.G
• Karmine Corp

Group C

• Bilbili Gaming
• Movistar KOI
• T1
• GAM Esports

Group D

• Hanwha Life
• MIBR.Los
• LYON
• JD Gaming

The Group Stage will cut the remaining teams in half. Only the top two from each progress to the Playoffs. The Playoffs are a single-elimination bracket with a 3rd-place decider match. Every Playoff match is best-of-3, except for the Grand Final, which is a best-of-5.

League of Legends 2026 EWC: Main Event Schedule

In total, the League of Legends 2026 EWC event will stretch from Wednesday, July 15, 2026 to Sunday, July 19, 2026. Here’s a more in-depth schedule for fans to follow:

• Group Stage: July 15 – July 17
• Playoffs: July 17 – July 19
• Grand Final: July 19

League of Legends 2026 EWC: All Teams

Now, here’s a list of all teams that will participate in the 2026 EWC League of Legends main event. There are 16 in total. One team, Gen.G, has qualified due to their win in 2025. They will return to defend their title. 9 teams qualified through the EWC’s own regional qualifiers, and the remaining six entered through LCK, LPL, LEC, LCS, CBLOL, and LCP events.

Gen.G

• Kiin
• Canyon
• Chovy
• Ruler
• Duro

Hanwha Life

• Zeus
• Kanavi
• Zeka
• Gumayusi
• Delight

Bilibili Gaming

• Bin
• Xun
• knight
• Viper
• ON

G2 Esports

• BrokenBlade
• SkewMond
• Caps
• Hans Sama
• Labrov

LYON

• Dhokla
• Inspired
• Saint
• Berserker
• Isles

FURIA

• Guigo
• Tatu
• Tutsz
• Ayu
• Jojo

Team Secret

• Pun
• Hizto
• Dire
• Eddie
• Bie

GAM Esports

• Kiaya
• Draktharr
• Gloryy
• Artemis
• Taki

MIBR.LOS

• Zest
• Curse
• Feisty
• Duduhh
• Ackerman

Sentinels

• Impact
• HamBak
• DARKWINGS
• Rahel
• huhi

Karmine Corp

• Canna
• Yike
• kyeahoo
• Caliste
• Busio

Movistar KOI

• Myrwn
• Elyoya
• Jojopyun
• Supa
• Alvaro

AG.AL

• Flandre
• Tarzan
• Shanks
• Hope
• Kael

JD Gaming

• Xiaoxu
• JunJia
• HongQ
• GALA
• Vampire

T1

• Doran
• Oner
• Faker
• Peyz
• Keria

Dplus

• Siwoo
• Lucid
• ShowMaker
• Smash
• Career

How to Watch League of Legends at the 2026 Esports World Cup

The Esports World Cup has a dedicated YouTube channel, @EWC. It also has a dedicated website here and an X.com page, @EWC_EN, with up-to-date information.

Alongside the main event streams, plenty of Twitch personalities will likely be co-streaming the event. The EWC is on the platform at https://www.twitch.tv/ewc. Fans can also track viewership statistics on the Esports World Cup viewership hub here.

Stay tuned for more League of Legends esports and in-game news.