On Thursday, the fourth annual League of Legends All-Stars event takes place in Barcelona, Spain, where five players from each of the major regions were elected by popular vote to compete for the pride of their region and the fans that voted for them.
These major regions consist of North America (NA LCS), Europe (EU LCS), China (LPL), South Korea (LCK) and the League Master Series (LMS), which include Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. The sixth competing region this year will be the All-Star team from Southeast Asia, having won the International Wildcard All-Stars tournament a few days before the main event.
The six regions are then split into two teams, Fire and Ice, and work together to become in fun exhibition competition. Team Fire consists of the LCK, NA LCS, and GPL lineups and Team Ice is formed by the LPL, EU LCS, and the Southeast Asia wild cards. After a long, hard-fought year of competitive League of Legends games, pros and fans alike get the chance to relax and let loose in this three-day show before readying up for another year of the competitive grind in a couple months.
At first, All-Stars used to take place halfway through the year and rewarded the strongest region with an advantage for the world championship, but due to many factors, such as some top teams in a region having members from different countries and simply that the world championship shouldn't have advantages from All-Stars, it was moved to the end of the year and became a exhibition of high entertainment value.
The chosen champions will compete in a series of events ranging from Marksman Mode to Assassin Mode, in which players will play only that type of champion with restrictions preventing them from building tank items. Each victory in any of these modes will score points for their respective teams, Fire or Ice.
Other events include One for All, in which each team in a five-vs.-five brawl will play five of one champion, and Tandem, in which each champion is controlled by two players -- one with the keyboard, and the other with the mouse. The last fun-mode match is Legend of the Poro King, a popular game mode that periodically shows up on the official servers played on Howling Abyss map.
The last two matches that earn points are more standard, in which each region will play with the standard rules against each other.
The most anticipated competition is the one-on-one tournament. All chosen players will compete in a 30-man bracket on the Howling Abyss, and the victor is decided by first blood, farming 100 minions, or destroying the opponent's tower first. It's the ultimate test of individual skill, and promises to be entertaining.
2016 League of Legends Rosters:
NA LCS:
Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong
Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin
Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg
Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng
Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black
EU LCS
Paul "sOAZ" Boyer
Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski
Enrique "xPeke" Cedeño Martínez
Martin "Rekkles" Larsson
Alfonso "mithy" Aguirre Rodríguez
LCK
Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho
Bae "Bengi" Seong-woong
Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
Kim "PraY" Jong-in
Hong "MadLife" Min-gi
LPL
Chen "Mouse" Yu-Hao
Ming "ClearLove" Kai
Wei "We1less" Zhen
Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao
Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong
LMS
Chen "Ziv" Yi
Hung "Karsa" Hau-Hsuan
Huang "Maple" Yi-Tang
Chang "BeBe" Bo-Wei
Kang "Albis" Chia-Wei
IWC - Southeast Asia
Nguyễn "QTV" Trần Tường Vũ
Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh
Trần "Optimus" Văn Cường
Nguyễn "Celebrity" Phước Long Hiệp
Lê "RonOP" Thiên Hàn