Worlds 2026 Heads to Texas and New York and Brings new changes to the International Tournaments

Ahead of the grand final of the League of Legends 2025 World Championship, Riot Games has unveiled the hosting cities for Worlds 2026 as the tournament returns to North America.

Worlds 2026 returns to North America

The game publisher has unveiled that next year’s world championship will be held in Allen, Texas and New York City. Unlike previous editions, which saw the tournament take place across three cities, next year’s Worlds will only span across two cities. 18 teams have been confirmed to take part at the tournament, increasing by one compared to this year’s edition.

Allen, a city near Dallas, comes as a surprise, although it recently hosted the LTA championship prior to the start of Worlds. New York City, on the other hand, will provide the global stage expected for a Worlds final. That being said, the decision comes as a clear downgrade compared to the 2022 edition, which saw Worlds being held in Mexico City, New York City, Atlanta , and San Francisco.

More teams at First Stand and more Bo5 action

While full competitive details for Worlds 2026 are yet to be unveiled, Riot has confirmed other key details about the other two international competitions on the calendar, First Stand (FST) and the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).

FST, the first tournament of the year, will be taking place in Brazil, São Paulo, Brazil, from March 16 to March 22. The biggest update is the expansion of the participating teams, increasing from five to eight.

#FST2026 is coming to São Paulo! 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/IQGneCCWpA

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) November 7, 2025

This was done not only to accomodate more teams following the split of the LTA back into the LCS and CBLOL, but it will also feature one additional team from the best performing regions in the tier-one ecosystem, the LPL and the LCK. The other big change for FST is the introduction of best-of-five series across all stages of the game.

For MSI, instead, the tournament will be returning to South Korea, with the hosting city being Daejeon, the country’s fifth-largest metropolis. Riot Games’ Global Head of League of Legends Esports Chris Greeley has confirmed at the Worlds 2025 Finals press conference that the tournament will continue to follow the double elimination format, with 11 squads taking part in the competition. Play-ins will only qualify one team to the bracket stage.

Despite recent feedback from the community regarding the single-elimination format at Worlds, Greeley stressed that the season-end tournament wants to focus on creating the highest-stakes matches possible.

Fearless Draft To Stay

Speaking of formats, Fearless Draft, to no one’s surprise, will be returning next year. After being tested out in 2025 across all major competitions, its wide success has convinced the tournament organizer to keep it in the next season, further promoting champion diversity and adaptation skills.

The takeaways for 2026 season

While Worlds 2026 is still a year away and with many details yet to be announced, there are some key information for global esports fans to look forward to.

The best and most positive news is the expansion of FST participants, featuring more teams, and ultimately, more cross regional competitions. MSI will also have one more additional team compared to this year’s addition, likely done to accomodate for the split of the North and South American regions. Unfortunately, Worlds will have less locations and hosting all stages in the same venue prior to the final seems like a cost-cutting decision more than anything else.