Riot Games has announced the host cities for the 2021 League of Legends World Championship. Worlds 2021 will take place across five cities in China: Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. 

This will be the first time since 2017 that China will host the World Championship under normal circumstances. The global COVID-19 pandemic's complications to offline play restricted Riot Games for Worlds 2020, and while the event was still offline, it took place entirely in Shanghai. 

The finals of the 2021 World Championship is scheduled to take place at the Universiade Sports Centre in Shenzhen on November 6. The rest of the schedule for the event, which usually covers 5-6 weeks each year from around the end of September through the beginning of November, has yet to be released by Riot Games. 

Each year, the host of the League of Legends World Championship is one of the four major regions. Worlds 2011, which only featured teams from the western hemisphere, took place in Europe. Since North America hosted Worlds 2012 and 2013 back-to-back, the host country has changed each year, but because of the COVID-19 restrictions that resulted in Worlds 2020 only coming to one Chinese city in Shanghai for a safe pre-event quarantine, Worlds 2021 will see a proper tour of China. 

“We’ve locked in the five Chinese cities after an extremely competitive bidding process, and we’re now ready to deliver on our promise to players with a multi-city tour for the biggest esports event on the planet,” said John Needham, Global Head of Esports at Riot Games in the company's official release regarding the Worlds 2021 locations. 

Riot Games also confirmed that North America will host the 2022 League of Legends World Championship, which will be the region's fourth time hosting and first since 2016.