League of Legends Draws 1.4 Million EWC Viewers as Dplus Kia Storms Through Paris

This past week, Dplus Kia swept Karmine Corp 3-0 to win the League of Legends title at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Paris, capping a week that also crowned champions in Free Fire and the MLBB Women’s Invitational while Dota 2 fans waited on an unresolved grand final.

Four titles were active over the last week: Dota 2, League of Legends, Free Fire, and the MLBB Women’s Invitational.

The playoff field formed after a GSL-style group stage that sent eight teams into a single-elimination bracket: Bilibili Gaming, T1, AG.AL, Dplus Kia, Gen.G, Karmine Corp, Hanwha Life Esports, and JD Gaming. Dplus Kia beat Bilibili Gaming 2-1 in the quarterfinals, then Gen.G 2-1 in the semifinals, before closing out Karmine Corp 3-0 in the grand final. Karmine Corp reached the final by beating T1 2-1 in its own semifinal. Gen.G beat T1 in the third-place match.

Team Vitality Fem beat Natus Vincere PH 4-2 in the MLBB Women’s Invitational grand final, defending the title it won previously. Natus Vincere PH reached the final by beating Galaxy Phoenix 3-0 in the semifinals, while Team Vitality Fem got past Geltek Cyber Team 3-1. Geltek Cyber Team then took third place with a 3-0 win over Galaxy Phoenix.

The tournament peaked at about 565,483 concurrent viewers, with the Vitality-NAVI final drawing the largest crowd of the bracket. Pre-event materials listed a $525,000 purse for the tournament, while a public schedule page later listed $500,000, leaving the final payout figure unresolved.

Twenty-four teams were split into two groups of 12 for the opening rounds on July 15 and 16, with the top four from each group advancing directly and the bottom two eliminated. Teams that finished fifth through 10th moved into a survival stage on July 17, where the top four advanced to join the group winners in a 12-team grand final on July 18.

League of Legends outdrew every other title with a public viewership figure this week. It’s 1,449,163 peak topped the MLBB Women’s Invitational’s 565,483 and Dota 2’s 324,997. Free Fire’s peak viewer count was not exposed in the publicly indexed sources.

Dota 2 was the one title left open at the close of the week. Team Yandex beat Vici Gaming 2-0 to lock in third place, but the grand final between Betboom Team and PARIVISION remained live as of 6:50 p.m. Paris time on Sunday, with Liquipedia still listing first place as “TBD.” Betboom Team reached the final by beating Vici Gaming 2-0 in the semifinals, while PARIVISION got past Team Yandex 2-1.