Teams from around the world are heading to the U.S. to compete in the League of Legends World Championship. After qualifying in their respective divisions, the teams have one goal: hoisting the Summoner’s Cup. It’s the game’s biggest tournament of the year, with millions watching it online. According to the website Esports Charts, since 2023, more than 6.4 million people each year have watched the League of Legends World Championship, or Worlds for short. The 2025 Worlds Final has over 9.4 million views on its YouTube page.
For some, they only watch Worlds similar to those not watching the NFL season but still watching the Super Bowl. If you plan on watching it with a friend or a loved one, it can be a lot to take in. I asked play-by-play caster Aaron “Medic” Chamberlain to help new fans understand what’s happening and what to say to make it sound like you’re an expert.
What is League of Legends?
“At its core, it’s a 5v5 fantasy battle simulation. You’re playing with four other teammates trying to destroy the enemy base, and they’re trying to do the same to you,” said Chamberlain. Players choose from over 170 champions, with different play styles and personalities, from Annie, a child mage who can shoot fire and summon a demonic teddy bear, to Blitzcrank, a steam-powered robot who can grab enemies from afar, and Yasuo, a swordsman who can use air to attack and block projectiles. Before each match, the teams take turns banning and selecting their respective champions. Once a champion is played, it can no longer be played for the rest of the series. For example, if Team A selected Annie for Game 1, neither Team A nor Team B can pick Annie again for Games 2 and 3.
Each round takes place in the map Summoner’s Rift, a square-like arena with three lanes: top, middle, bottom. A group of minions spawn from each team’s base and will move into their respective lanes until they encounter an opponent and start fighting. In the beginning, players kill the opposing minions to gain experience. After gaining enough experience, players gain a level, which increases their stats and allows them to learn new/upgrade abilities. Between each lane is the jungle area that contains larger minions that grant more experience and can briefly enhance your character. Throughout the match, teams will set up fights and put them in the best position to take down their opponents. Other times, teams stealthily move around the map and set up a three-versus-one fight; those situations are called ganks.
Story continues below Trending Shorts
What are the roles?
Similar to sports, each player plays a certain position with a champion that specializes in those roles. “Each of the roles defines where you are on the map. The top laner is in the top lane, the jungler is in the jungle, etc,” said Chamberlain. “Usually what you tend to see is top laners are more tanky people; they like to be in the middle of the action, but they aren’t doing a huge amount of damage. Your mid laners are the mages, so think of your Gandalfs and any other mage you can think of from any fantasy; that’s kind of what plays in the middle lane, and your bot lane is your Legolases, all my references are Lord of the Rings references.[...] And then you have your support, who is more of a cleric, like your healer, and you have your jungler, who can do a mix of a few different things. They have a bit more freedom on the map; they can go where they want, and because of that, sometimes you have people that can do a lot of damage, but also sometimes you can have people who are just quite tanky for the team.”
What are Dragon and Baron, and why do teams fight over them?
After a certain time has elapsed, players will make their way to certain points on the map and fight to secure an enhancement, or buff, to help make them stronger throughout the game. Those areas are the dragon pit to fight drakes and the Elder Dragon, and the baron pit to fight a serpent-like creature known as Baron Nashor. “The reason you want to fight over them is, if you get one, you get a buff for the rest of the game. It’s a permanent buff from the dragons and a three-minute buff from the barons, and these are game-changing. If you get enough of them, it’s basically impossible to beat you. So especially in the later portions of the game where some of the bigger dragons spawn, like the Elder Dragon, it gives you a buff that executes your enemies if you hit them enough, so it’s very powerful, and it’s why you see fights around them,” explained Chamberlain.
What are some Worlds storylines?
“I think the major one is, T1 are a team from Korea who’ve been consistently one of the best teams in the world. They’ve won six world titles, the only team to have won that many, and they’ve currently won three on the bounce. So they are just dominating international League of Legends when it comes to Worlds, and the question is: can they maintain that form, because they don’t look like the best team coming out of Korea this year,” said Chamberlain. “You’ve got teams like Gen.G who, consistently over the last few years, look like the best team coming from Korea but are unable to perform when it comes to the world stage. You’ve got HLE [Hanwha Life]. You’ve also got teams from China like BLG [Bilibili Gaming] who are led by a player called Knight, who is one of the best players to ever exist in League of Legends but seems to just always fall at the final hurdle when it comes to playing up against Korean teams. And then you have teams from Europe and from the U.S. that are also really beginning to challenge, especially the LCS, which is the United States league including Latin America but not including Brazil. They, this year, have looked a lot stronger than they have looked in a long time. Like, I think a lot of people will be looking at LCS teams and saying it’s possible that they can push for a semifinal, maybe even a final as a pinch.”
What can I say to sound like I know what I’m talking about?
If you want to take part in the conversation or make others think you know what you’re talking about, Aaron recommends throwing the words “priority” and “tempo.” “Priority needs to be said near the early portion of the game, and usually you’re talking about a lane. It’s like ‘Oh, not sure they get prio in this lane,’ or ‘Oh, look at the prio in that lane right now.’ That will make it sound like you know a lot more than you actually know,” advised Chamberlain. “Tempo can be used ubiquitously at any point just in reference to a team or player. No one actually knows what this word means; even casters don’t really know. It’s just ‘Oh, look at his tempo right now,’ or ‘The tempo is off.’ Any variation of those sorts of things and you’ll sound like you’ve been watching League for ten years.”
You can hear more insight from Aaron “Medic” Chamberlain, including which team is similar to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the full interview.
The Play-In stage for the 2026 League of Legends World Championship starts on Thursday, October 15 at 2:00 p.m. EST. You can watch the games on the Riot Games Twitch page or on the LoL Esports YouTube channel.
▶ Listen to Jacksonville’s Morning News Interviews
[ Read more local news from WOKV ]
Click here to download our free news, weather and traffic app. And click here to subscribe to our daily 3 Big Things newsletter.
©2026 Cox Media Group
