Riot Games and TJ Sports Launch World Star Challengers Invitational – League of Legends' First Global Tier 2 Tournament

Riot Games has teamed up with TJ Sports the organizer behind the LPL, Asia Masters, and the Demacia Cup International to unveil a brand-new international competition: the World Star Challengers Invitational (WSCI). It marks the first time League of Legends has built an event specifically around Tier 2 talent, bringing together development, academy, and challenger-league squads from every major region.

The tournament runs from September 20 through October 2, 2026, and will feature 16 teams drawn from China, Korea, Europe, the Americas, and the broader APAC region.

WSCI follows a structure that will feel familiar to anyone who's watched an early-era League of Legends World Championship:

• The group stage (September 20–25) splits the 16 teams into four groups of four. Each group plays a double round-robin in a best-of-one format — 48 matches in total spread across six match days, with eight games per day. The top two finishers in each group advance.

• Playoff (September 27–October 2) is single elimination, with every series played best-of-five. Seven series make up the bracket — quarterfinals, semifinals, and the grand final, which will crown the WSCI 2026 champion on October 2.

The group draw itself is built around three seeding pools with strict placement rules: each group gets one team from Pool 1, one from Pool 2, and two from Pool 3. Teams from Pools 1 and 2 representing the same region are kept in separate groups, and no group can hold more than two teams from any single region.

Until now, Tier 2 League of Legends has essentially been a closed-loop, region-by-region affair development rosters spent entire seasons facing the same domestic opponents with no real chance to test themselves internationally. WSCI is meant to change that.

According to the organizers, the goal is to speed up player development, build stronger ties between regional ecosystems, and give fans an early look at the players who could become the next wave of LoL Esports stars. Rather than build something from scratch, Riot and TJ Sports chose to expand the existing Asia Masters framework, pulling in teams from Korea, EMEA, China, APAC, and the Americas alongside the reigning Asia Masters champion.

We're focused on creating more opportunities for developing players and their teams to challenge themselves in more meaningful ways. We're partnering with TJ Sports to expand Asia Masters and bring together teams from Korea, EMEA, China, APAC, and the Americas, as well as the Asia Masters champion.

For 2026, the event is explicitly a pilot. Riot and TJ Sports want to see what a long-term model for international Tier 2 competition could look like before committing to a permanent spot on the calendar.

Each region was given free rein to design its own qualification path for its three representatives, so the approaches vary widely. According to Sheep Esports, several regions have already locked in their first names.

• EMEA (3 slots) has confirmed two of its three representatives: Galions and Solary, winners of the last two EMEA Masters seasons, selected based on their results over the year. The third EMEA slot will be settled through a closed mini-qualifier among a select group of regional teams. That information was later corroborated when the official EMEA Masters account confirmed the invited teams, echoing what Sheep Esports had reported.
• China/ LDL (3 slots): the academy rosters of two major LPL organizations have already secured their places — EDward Gaming Youth and Bilibili Gaming Junior.
• Korea/ LCK CL (3 slots): the region will send three teams from its challenger league.
• Americas (3 slots): one representative each from NACL (North America), LRN/LRS (Latin America), and Brazil's Circuito Desafiante. Per Sheep Esports, the Brazilian slot went to Vivo Keyd Stars Academy as the academy side that advanced furthest in this year's championship — a detail Riot Games itself confirmed via its own tweet at the time of the announcement.
• APAC (3 slots): one team apiece from the PCS, LJL, and VCS leagues.

The 16th and final slot belongs to the 2026 Asia Masters champion, Dplus Challengers.

Riot's official release makes no mention of a host location. However, Sheep Esports reports that the participating teams are expected to travel to South Korea. Hosting everything in one place would let all teams compete under identical ping conditions a meaningful factor in a game where connection latency can directly affect performance.

Riot has not yet released a full broadcast schedule. Fans will be able to follow the action through regional Tier 2 social channels, with regional co-streamers covering the event across all five regions. We'd also like to remind you that data miners have found new references to upcoming K/DA skins.