At the end of the season, the top performing teams qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship.

[1] In addition to a small studio audience, all games are streamed live in several languages on Twitch and YouTube, with broadcasts regularly attracting over 300,000 viewers.

[5][6] The LEC has attracted sponsorships from LG UltraGear, Kia,[7] Red Bull,[8] and Erste Group.

[citation needed] Riot Games announced the formation of the LCS on 6 August 2012,[12] creating a fully professional league run by the company with a regular schedule and guaranteed salaries for players, featuring eight teams.

The League of Legends Challenger Series was created as a second tier of competition for promotion and relegation.

The 2017 Spring European LCS finals were held at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany, where G2 won 3–1 against Unicorns of Love, securing their third LCS title and qualifying for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), an annually-held international League of Legends competition.

The Summer Split LCS finals took place in Paris at the AccorHotel Arena,[16] where G2 Esports won 3–0 against Misfits Gaming.

[18] In 2020, the league announced via their public Twitter account a partnership with a proposed Saudi Arabian city, Neom.

Following major community backlash over the human rights abuses in the country, including criminalization of LGBT people, the partnership was called off the next day.

The LEC primarily reaches its viewers through online streaming using its own channels on Twitch and YouTube.

[26][better source needed] However, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck stated in 2012 that there were no immediate plans to try to bring the LCS to traditional TV, but news coverage of the regular season isn't generally limited to dedicated electronic sports news sites, such as CBS Interactive's onGamers.