In 2013, Riot Games launched its new professional circuit of League of Legends, the LoL Championship Series (NA and EU), in Europe and North America. The goal was to maintain control over the most important events in the face of competition from third-party tournament organizers like IPL or ESL. Indeed, the Worlds had established themselves as the premier event of the year after Season 2, and only Riot Games' official tournaments granted access to it (except in South Korea).

However, this new system led to some anomalies in the distribution of spots and seeding for the competition. The Taiwanese league - the LoL Master Series (LMS) - reigning since Taipei Assassins' victory, was granted only one spot. Meanwhile, North America sent three teams despite a disappointing showing at the 2012 Worlds, where Team Solomid, the only American team in the quarterfinals, had automatically qualified after winning the Regional Finals.

Stakes are the same but with a few changes in the format

The standards of the competition remained as high as the previous year with a cash prize of $2 million overall with $1 million only for the first place. Groups and quarters have been played at the Culver studios (1.500 people capacity), semis at the Galen Center in Los Angeles (10.000 people capacity) while the final was held at the Staples Center (20.000 people capacity). At the end, SKT T1 won the League of Legends Worlds in 2013. A look back at the first triumph of the most successful team in history.

Riot Games kept a controversial system to directly qualify four teams to the quarters. Thus, they allowed the best four regions placed at the All-Star tournament in Shanghai (played 4 months earlier), China, Korea, NA and Taiwan directly to send their seed 1 to quarters. Another change is that this year marks the introduction to best of 5 starting semi-finals.

Overall, fourteen teams competed that year, and with four of them already qualified to quarters, two groups of five teams were created in which only the top 2 would qualify. During that stage, the five teams would face each other twice.

Korea, Europe and China got the best out of the group phase

On one side, Group A seemed almost predictable, with SKT T1 and Oh My God (OMG) securing the top two spots as expected. The Europeans from Lemondogs didn't disappoint much by failing to qualify considering the gap between them and their opponents. However, the NA teams suffered from humiliation as TSM finished with a record of 2-6.

On the other hand, Group B was much more unpredictable. Except for the Philippines team, Mineski, considered unlikely to go further in the competition, all the teams involved had a chance to claim a top 2 spot and qualify for the quarterfinals. One team held their ground without faltering: Fnatic, the world champions from the inaugural edition, who, as in 2011, lost their opening match against Vulcun but bounced back afterward.

A duel quickly emerged between Gambit, the 3rd seed from Europe, and Samsung Ozone. Both they and Gambit finished the group stage with a 5-3 record, and they were tied 1-1 in the head-to-head matchup. Ozone finally lost the tiebreaker match and were eliminated from the tournament. Europe therefore managed to advance two out of its three teams, which was as many as South Korea - although South Korea already had one representative automatically qualified for the quarterfinals.

Quarters went pretty straight forward. SKT and NaJin BlackSword (NJS) ended on the same side of the bracket. SKT eliminating Gumania Bears, the easiest matchup on paper, while NJBS had to face Gambit and care not to fall on this trap match. On the other side of the bracket, both Chinese teams faced off and Royal Club (RYL) logically got the win marking the Worlds. It was also the first appearance of a now very-well known player named Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao, who blind picked a Vayne in game 2 which proved how confident he was in his laning phase very early in his career. Last quarter was a historical EU vs NA matchup were Fnatic defeated Cloud9 2-1, dropping only one game with a very surprising Rumble pick by An "BalIs" Van. In the end, this elimination marked the end of NA's last hope in the tournament.

SKT T1, a Korean team to rule them all

At this stage, Korea was guaranteed to send one representative to the final and only needed to decide between its two teams. The fratricidal showdown between SKT T1 and NJS turned into a bloodbath. They neutralized each other in the first three games, with NJS leading 2-1 without appearing significantly better. If Riot hadn't introduced Best of 5 matches that year, Sang-hyeok "Faker" Lee would have been eliminated and wouldn't have begun to write his legend. However, during the third game, SKT understood the key pick of the match: Lee Sin. Even though T1 had lost Game 1 with the champion, the early-game proactivity of the Blind Monk - while avoiding a mid-jungle double AP composition - allowed them to gain the advantage in skirmishes.

In Games 4 and 5, SKT prioritized Lee Sin in the jungle, even if it meant leaving champions like Ezreal and Ahri, who were particularly strong in the meta, open to their opponents. This strategic choice paid off, and both games ended in 22 and 27 minutes respectively (which was very fast at that time).

Europe and China faced off in the other semifinal for the chance to challenge the LCK. Fnatic couldn't match up against RYL, despite the British team securing a win in one game thanks to Lauri "Cyanide" Happonen's clever Aatrox jungle play. In Game 4, when Europe had a chance to even the score at 2-2, Fnatic lost their composure and allowed the matches to drag on. In this exchange, Uzi emerged victorious.

Beginning of the dynasty

So the grand final came with the promise of a match between Faker's team against Uzi's in order to decide whether Korea or China would bring the trophy home for the first time. But as expected, RYL was swept 3-0, and the MVP of the finals turned out to be Eon-young "Impact" Jeong, thanks to his dominant performances on Jax throughout three games.

The Chinese team never managed to unsettle SKT from their comfort zone. Even in Game 2, with a smart draft and Pun Wai "Wh1t3zZ" Lo put on Kassadin to counter Faker's Zed (his worst matchup and the best champion in the game at that time), RYL failed to secure the win.

SKT T1 claimed the title, and 2013 marked the beginning of their dynasty with this roster:

As for TPA the previous year, SKT got honored by a unique set of in-game skins to commemorate their achievement, the "SKT T1" skin line, featuring customized appearances for champions used by the team. These skins included SKT T1 Jax, SKT T1 Lee Sin, SKT T1 Zed, ST T1 Vayne, SKT T1 Zyra.