League of Legends 2021 e-sport World Championship to fire up Iceland’s events industry

Riot Sports has announced, 27 September, plans to host the League of Legends 2021 World Championship in Reykjavík, Iceland. The key e-sports event will take place in Hall A at the Laugardalshöll indoor sporting arena, 5 October-6 November. The event will be completely online, with an expected 100m people to turn in on live stream. Around 600 people will travel to the championships in person. The World Championships will kick off with The Play Ins, followed by various knock-out stages of the tournament and culminating with the finals on 6 November 2021. In May 2021, Reykjavík hosted the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) in Hall B at the Laugardalshöll, also without a live audience. The 2021 MSI saw the the finals between the teams DAMWON KIA and Royal Never Give Up, hitting a peak viewership of 23.7m. On average, across the entire tournament, the 2021 MSI had an average minute audience of 3.6m. Sigurður Valur Sigurðsson, director of marketing at Meet in Reykjavík, said: “The announcement that the League of Legends 2021 World Championships will take place in Reykjavik, is a monumental moment for the business events industry in Iceland. Following the pandemic, where our venues were closed and international business travel limited, the championships have come at the perfect time to reignite Reykjavik’s large-scale events industry and shine an international light on our city’s offering for major events.” Reykjavík is situated midway between the US and Europe, with three-hour flights from mainland Europe and five-hour flights from the US. From the 26 June 2021, after the country established a high vaccination rate, most of Iceland’s Covid-19 restrictions were lifted.