2022 Asian Games: Dates, schedule, LoL teams & more

After a long wait, the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou are only two months away. Here is all you need to know about the event’s League of Legends tournament, featuring some of the best players in the region.

The prestigious multi-sport event was initially scheduled to take place in September 2022 but was postponed for a whole year because of health restrictions in place in the host city of Hangzhou at the time.

For the first time, esports will be part of the Asian Games’ programme as a medal event. There will be seven games being played in official competitions, including League of Legends, Dota 2, Street Fighter V and FIFA Online 4. (Hearthstone was initially part of the list before being excluded after negotiations between Blizzard Entertainment and Chinese publishing partner NetEase fell through.)

With the esports medals counting towards the final medal tally, the participating countries will be sending their very best athletes to represent them in Hangzhou. Many esports stars have also publicly spoken about the pride and joy of being able to play for their country at this event.

In the League of Legends community, many fans are already dreaming of a Korea versus China final as the exciting LCK vs LPL rivalry will be renewed. At the 2018 Asian Games, were esports was only a demonstration sport, China won the League of Legends tournament by beating South Korea 3-1 in the grand final.

Here is all you need to know about the 2022 Asian Games’ League of Legends tournament.

2022 Asian Games: Dates, schedule and format

The League of Legends tournament will run between September 25-29. The venue picked for the esports competition is the Hangzhou Esports Center, a state-of-the-art arena that can accommodate over 4,000 spectators.

The schedule can be found below:

• Group Stage: September 25-26
• Quarter-Finals: September 27
• Semi-Finals: September 28
• Bronze Medal & Grand Final: September 29

There will be four round-robin groups, with teams facing each other twice in BO1 games. The group stage will be followed by the single-elimination playoffs, where every match will be a BO3 series.

2022 Asian Games: Teams and rosters

So far, 24 national teams have been confirmed for the League of Legends competition. Notably, South Korea will be represented by a mix of players from T1, JD Gaming and Gen.G, with legendary coach Kim ‘kkOma’ Jeong-gyun leading the group.

The Chinese contingent, meanwhile, will be made up of players from JD Gaming, Bilibili Gaming and EDward Gaming. The team will be coached by Zhu ‘KenZhu’ Kai, who won MSI 2022 with Royal Never Give Up and was part of EDG’s coaching staff during their 2021 Worlds-winning run.