League of Legends Worlds 2026 is down to its last eight teams. The tournament opened with the Play-In at Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles on October 15, moved to Allen, Texas for the Swiss Stage, quarterfinals and semifinals, and saves its final for New York.
It is the first Worlds played in North America since 2022, and because US daylight saving time ended on November 1, the gap between the US East Coast and Asia grew by an hour right before the knockout stage.
If you are searching for the Worlds 2026 final time, the venue, the opening ceremony lineup or the prize pool, this page puts all of it in one place. Everything below reflects what was confirmed as of November 3, 2026, the day the quarterfinals begin in Texas.
The two finalists are not decided yet, so instead of guessing, we lay out which matchups are possible from each half of the bracket and will update the page once the results are in.
Worlds 2026 final start time by time zone
| Time zone | Final start | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern (ET, local time in New York) | Sat, Nov 14, 2:00 PM | US daylight saving ended Nov 1, so this is EST |
| Central (CT) | Sat, Nov 14, 1:00 PM | Same zone as the quarterfinals and semifinals in Allen, Texas |
| Pacific (PT) | Sat, Nov 14, 11:00 AM | Riot lists the opening ceremony at 11 AM PT |
| UK (GMT) | Sat, Nov 14, 7:00 PM | UK clocks went back on October 25 |
| Central Europe (CET) | Sat, Nov 14, 8:00 PM | A Saturday evening slot for LEC fans across Europe |
| Korea and Japan (KST/JST) | Sun, Nov 15, 4:00 AM | Early Sunday morning for LCK fans |
Venue, opening ceremony and prize pool: what we know so far
The final is at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
LoL Esports announced the full Worlds 2026 itinerary on March 22: the Play-In at Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, the Swiss Stage, quarterfinals and semifinals at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, and the final at Barclays Center.
Like every knockout series this year, the final is a best of five, and it uses Fearless Draft, which Riot kept for 2026, so any champion played earlier in the series cannot be picked again. The deeper the series goes, the more unusual the drafts tend to get.
The day opens with the Worlds 2026 Final Opening Ceremony presented by Mastercard, and Riot has confirmed that K/DA and True Damage will both perform. True Damage recorded this year's anthem, Know My Name, with SOYEON, Coco Jones, Vic Mensa and Sofía Reyes.
The ceremony is listed at 11 AM PT, the same start time Riot lists for the final, so game one begins once the show wraps. As for money, Worlds 2025 raised the base prize pool to $5 million, more than double the 2024 amount.
The Worlds 2026 payouts by placement will be added to this page as soon as Riot publishes them officially.
How to catch the Worlds 2026 final live
- 1Convert the start time to your time zoneThe final starts at 2 PM ET on Saturday, November 14. Daylight saving time ended in the US on November 1 and in the UK and Europe on October 25, so double check any time you saw in an older article, and set a reminder about 30 minutes early.
- 2Follow the semifinals to learn the finalistsThe semifinals are on November 7 and 8 at 4 PM CT in Allen, Texas. The second semifinal decides the last finalist, so the full matchup is known by the evening of November 8.
- 3Tune in from the start for the opening ceremonyK/DA and True Damage take the stage at 11 AM PT, the listed start time of the final. Game one follows the ceremony, so join a few minutes early if you want to see the show.
- 4Pick an official streamThe final streams on lolesports.com and on Riot's official English channels, twitch.tv/riotgames and the LoL Esports YouTube channel. Regional broadcasts in other languages run on their own official channels.
- 5Play the champions you just watchedPro drafts are a great prompt for your own games. Record your next match on the same champion and compare one moment side by side, like your first back or a Baron call, using the method in our LoL VOD review guide.
Before the final, double check
- The final is Saturday, November 14 at 2 PM ET, 11 AM PT, 7 PM GMT and 8 PM CET
- The finalists are only known after the second semifinal on November 8
- The opening ceremony is set for the listed start time, before game one
- It is a best of five with Fearless Draft, so a full five game series can run for several hours
- Watching with friends in Korea or Japan? For them it is 4 AM on Sunday, November 15
After the final, let DOR save the highlights from your own games
Watching a final usually ends with wanting to play the champions you just saw. DOR is a free Windows app: leave it running, launch League of Legends, and it detects the game and records the whole match.
In League it also cuts highlight clips automatically for kills, multikills from double kill to pentakill, and objectives such as dragons and Baron, and everything collects in My Clips in the app. You never need to hit a button in the middle of a teamfight, as our pentakill clip guide shows.
League's recording settings also have replays and spectating turned on by default, so when you play back one of your own replays in the client, DOR records that too.
If you queue as a duo and your friend also records the match with DOR, a Party Clip combines each player's view of the same match into one video. Trim a 9:16 vertical cut in the app, or send a dor.gg link that plays straight in a phone browser. See how to share LoL gameplay with friends for the full flow, and the League of Legends hub for everything DOR records in League.
