The 2018 League of Legends World Championship is the eighth world championship for League of Legends, an esports tournament for the video game developed by Riot Games. It was held from October 1 to November 3, 2018, in cities across South Korea. Twenty four teams qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in China, South Korea, Europe, and North America, with twelve of those teams having to reach the group stage via a play-in round. The tournament is known for its very surprising results, numerous upsets, and is often considered the most unpredictable worlds in League of Legends' history. The tournament has also become the most watched esports event in history, reaching a peak of over 200 million concurrent viewers during the finals. It surpasses the viewership of the 2017 League of Legends World Championship, as well as the peak viewership of numerous worldwide sporting events including Super Bowl. The tournament's opening ceremony received significant attention, with over 90 million concurrent viewers tuning in for the performance. An augmented reality K-pop group, K/DA was unveiled by Riot Games during the ceremony, with Soyeon and Miyeon from (G)I-dle's, Madison Beer and Jaira Burns representing the group as its human counterpart and in the live performance of the finals. K/DA topped global music charts after the initial release of their debut song "Pop/Stars", receiving considerable attention online and raking in one of the fastest viewership records for its music video on Youtube. A dance version of "Pop/Stars" was also released. "RISE" is the tournament's theme song, put together by three different music groups / artist - The Glitch Mob, Mako and The Word Alive. A remix version of "RISE" featuring Bobby from IKON was also released shortly after, with the song being performed on the tournament's finals by all the involved music groups and artists. The victory of China's Invictus Gaming over Europe's Fnatic in the tournament's finals marked the first time in League of Legends history that the LPL (China) as a region won the world championship, as well as the first time a non-LCK (Korean) team has won after five consecutive years of prior Korean winners. The final series is also the fastest world championship finals in history at 85 minutes total game time. Gao “Ning” Zhenning was awarded the MVP of the finals due to his outstanding performance and contributions during the series, marking the first time a jungle position player has won a world championship MVP.