League of Legends at the EWC 2026: equipment, patch and Chronobreak rules

A League of Legends professional travels to a tournament with a keyboard, a mouse and a mousepad, and expects to find everything else waiting on stage. What waits there, how it is checked, and what happens when the machine or the game itself goes wrong are not left to habit. At the Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris, they are written down in the rulebook published for the League of Legends tournament, which prints no version number or date and names no host city.

Those rules matter most at the worst moment: a disconnection in the middle of a fight, a bug that hands one team an objective, a crash that freezes ten screens. The rulebook answers each case in advance, with a pause procedure, a rewind tool called Chronobreak and a remake protocol, and it gives officials the power to award a game outright.

This guide reads the rulebook for its technical side. It covers the format that sets the stakes, the equipment the organizer supplies and the peripherals players bring, the offline machines and the fixed patch, accounts and setup, the draft rules that run through the game client, pauses, bugs and the game of record, Chronobreak, remakes and awarded games, and the penalty points that enforce the timetable.

Esports World Cup 2026 League of Legends rulebook, sections 5.1.1, 5.9.12 and 5.10.6.

Sixteen teams in five days

League of Legends is a MOBA, a multiplayer online battle arena: two teams of five champions fight on a map called Summoner's Rift, and a game ends when one team destroys the other's Nexus, the structure at the heart of its base. The rulebook adds that players may not use the in-game surrender command unless the Tournament Administration, the officials who run the event, tells them to or approves it.

The tournament gathers 16 teams in four groups played in the GSL format, in which each team has three attempts to qualify out of its group. The top two of each group, eight teams in all, enter a single-elimination bracket where one defeat ends the run. The rulebook seeds the groups from four pools, built from the regional leagues and the qualifiers, and draws them so that each group holds one team from each pool and no more than one team per region.

A best-of-one is a single game; a best-of-three is won by the first team to two games, and a best-of-five by the first to three. Section 4 fixes the calendar as follows.

The prize distribution in section 7 gives the stakes: US$600,000 to the winner, US$340,000 to the runner-up, US$220,000 for third and US$140,000 for fourth, then US$90,000 to each team in fifth to eighth place, US$55,000 to each in ninth to 12th and US$30,000 to each in 13th to 16th. The places add up to US$2 million, and the most valuable player receives a further US$25,000. Payment comes no earlier than five weeks after the event.

The rulebook sits under the Esports World Cup Global Rulebook, which applies to every game of the event, and the administration may change or remove its rules without notice and decide cases it does not cover.

What the organizer supplies

Section 8.1 opens with one line: "EWC always provides monitors, computers, SSDs and noise-cancelling headphones." The screen, the machine, its storage and the headset that cuts players off from the noise of the hall are therefore the same for every team, and teams do not bring their own.

The rulebook gives no specification for that hardware: no screen refresh rate, no processor, no graphics card. It states only what is supplied, and leaves the rest to the organizer.

Communication on stage is limited as well. During the draft, players may talk only to their own lineup and to the administration, and coaches who join them for the pick-and-ban phase speak through approved voice channels, leave the stage for a designated position when the countdown reaches five seconds and are muted when it reaches zero.

The peripherals players bring

What players touch is their own. The same section says participants have to bring their own peripherals, in particular a keyboard, a mouse, a mousepad and, if needed, a sound card. A player who has spent a season with one mouse and one keyboard keeps them on the biggest stage.

That freedom comes with controls. All equipment must be approved by the Tournament Administration. The organizer may refuse any device it judges to give an unfair competitive advantage, and participants may be asked to hand in equipment for additional checks. Using more than one piece of the same type, two mice for example, needs the administration's approval.

Two practical rules complete the list. The tournament machines do not support PS/2 keyboards, an older type of plug. And every competitor must bring backup hardware, in case their primary devices fail.

Section 8.2 adds a rule on what players wear rather than what they use: no flags or country identifiers may appear as part of player apparel.

Offline machines and a fixed patch

The tournament computers are cut off from the outside world. Section 8.3 says it plainly: internet access on tournament computers is disabled for all participants. The machines run the game on the tournament's network and nothing else.

The game itself is frozen too. Section 5.1.1 sets every match on patch 26.13. A patch is a numbered update of the game that changes champions, items and balance; fixing one patch means that every match of the event is played with the same numbers. The administration may switch to another patch for technical problems, or if a game-breaking bug or exploit threatens the integrity of the competition.

New champions face a specific rule. Section 5.1.2 states: "Champions will be automatically restricted from play for their release patch." A champion released on the tournament patch therefore cannot be picked at the event. Reworked champions, older ones whose kit has been redesigned, are enabled or not at the organizer's sole discretion.

The administration keeps a wider power. Under section 5.6.9 it may add restrictions on champions or game elements at any time before or during a match, for known bugs or for other reasons.

Accounts, setup and the ready check

Players do not log in with their own accounts. Section 5.2 gives each of them an account on the tournament realm, a separate server used for official play, where they set their own preferences. The name on the account must match the Official Tournament Handle approved by the player's league, so that the name on screen is the name in the bracket.

Setup follows a fixed order, which the steps below trace from the rulebook.

The setup window is meant to absorb the problems. Section 5.4.3 asks for issues to be fixed within it, so the match starts on time; the administration may allow a delay, and it may penalize tardiness. Runes, mentioned in the second step, are the set of perks each player chooses before a game.

The lobby itself is set by section 5.5.1: Summoner's Rift, teams of five, the Tournament Draft mode, and spectators allowed only in the lobby. The administration decides how the lobby is created.

Draft rules that run through the client

The draft, or pick-and-ban phase, is when teams ban champions and choose their own. It runs on the game client's Tournament Draft feature, and section 5.6.4 lets the administration switch to a manual draft at its sole discretion. Section 5.6.5 sets the order: bans in turns, then picks in a snake order, then a second round of bans and picks.

The client is also where mistakes happen. A player who picks or bans the wrong champion must tell the administration over the official voice channel before the other team locks its next choice. If so, the phase restarts from the mistake and the player corrects it; if the other team has already locked in, the mistake stands. Champion trades between teammates must be completed by the 20-second mark of the trading phase, or the players keep the champions they had.

One rule changes the whole series. Under section 5.6.8, the Fearless Draft, a champion played in any game of a match is locked for the rest of that match, for both teams and from either side. A series therefore uses a fresh set of champions game after game.

Side and pick order are chosen ahead of time. The team with the right of first selection, the higher seed in game one and the loser of the previous game afterwards, picks either the side of the map or the first pick, and the other team gets its preference on what remains. A team that submits nothing receives the default: first pick or the blue side. Once the draft ends, the game starts at once, printed notes are removed, and nobody may quit.

When a game may be paused

Section 5.8.2 limits the reasons for a pause to three: an unintentional disconnection, a hardware or software malfunction, and physical interference with a player. The player notifies the administration immediately and states the reason. A deliberate disconnection without the administration's authorization is forbidden.

A pause has its own discipline. Players may not leave the Match Area unless an official authorizes it and accompanies them. Teammates may not talk to each other; they speak to the referee only to find and fix the cause. During a long pause, referees may let teams discuss the state of the game.

Players never resume play themselves. Under section 5.8.4, once the administration clears the issue and every player confirms readiness through the in-game chat, the in-client spectators unpause. Pausing without a valid reason, or resuming without permission, counts as unfair play and may cost the team penalty points.

Illness or injury follows separate rules. A minor illness, injury or disability is not a valid reason for a pause. A player may declare a medical condition to the administration before the match, and officials may allow a brief pause to assess a player during it. A player who cannot continue may cost the team the game, unless the administration decides otherwise.

Bugs and the game of record

Section 5.9 sorts the faults. A bug is any error that causes unexpected results or unintended behavior in the game or the hardware. A minor bug is at worst inconvenient and can be played through. A play-through bug does not significantly affect integrity, and includes bugs the teams were told about in advance; it must be played through. A critical bug significantly harms a player's ability to compete or significantly changes the game's statistics or mechanics. A verifiable bug is clearly present, not caused by player error, and can be replayed by spectators. A hardware failure counts as unintentional only when the player did not cause it, and officials decide.

Reporting has to be quick. Section 5.9.11 asks a player who notices a bug to pause as soon as practical, by typing /pause, by asking a teammate by voice or by calling a referee. A request heard aloud counts even if the game does not stop at once.

The key moment of a game is the game of record. Under section 5.9.12, a game becomes official once all ten players have loaded and meaningful interaction has begun: line of sight between opponents, an attack or ability hitting minions, monsters, structures or champions, a player entering the enemy jungle, or the timer reaching two minutes. Before that point, a game can be restarted for incidental problems. After it, those incidental restarts are no longer allowed.

Chronobreak, the rewind tool

Chronobreak is the rulebook's name for the Deterministic Disaster Recovery Tool, which rewinds a game in progress to an earlier moment. Officials use it to return to a dead-ball state, a point at which neither team is heavily engaged, as close to the bug as possible.

A rewind has a cost when it would undo something earned after that point. Section 5.9.10 counts as cost any player death, any objective not already in progress at the dead-ball state, such as a tower, a dragon, the herald or the baron, and the use of an ultimate or a summoner spell with a base cooldown of 110 seconds or more, an ultimate being judged on its rank-one cooldown. Wards and farmed minions do not count.

Officials work in a fixed order under section 5.10.2: was the pause timely, is the bug verifiable, and is it minor, critical or terminal. For a minor bug, a rewind with a cost does not happen and play continues; without a cost, Chronobreak is used only if it restores the game and fixes or avoids the bug, and the significantly disadvantaged team is offered it without being told the target moment. For a critical bug, officials look for a dead-ball state before the bug, and may offer a remake if a rewind would cost more.

Remakes and awarded games

A terminal situation includes a critical bug that Chronobreak cannot fix, a bug that needs a champion or a skin disabled, and any situation officials judge unsustainable, such as environment problems or a catastrophic hardware failure. Before the game of record, a remake may also follow runes, spells or interface settings that fail to apply. After it, a remake may follow a terminal situation or unfair conditions in the venue, such as excessive noise or a safety risk.

Before remaking a game, officials first consider awarding it. Section 5.10.6 lists criteria they may use, without being bound to them.

If no game is awarded, officials decide which teams were significantly disadvantaged, and those teams may accept a remake, which starts at once. Officials may order one without an offer, for example after a server crash that cannot be recovered.

What a remake keeps depends on timing. Before the game of record, picks, bans, runes, skins and summoner spells may be kept; after it, nothing is. When a champion bug caused the remake, the draft is never kept, and the champion may be barred for at least the rest of the day. Hardware faults are graded the same way, from a monitor that loses power, through a keyboard failure that causes a death, to a server crash. Above all of it, officials may use Chronobreak or remake any game at any time when the tournament's interests require it.

Penalty points and the clock

The timetable is enforced by penalty points. Section 6.1.1 gives a team two penalty points for each block of five minutes its players are late, at the start of a match, between games or after a break. At ten minutes, lateness becomes a no-show: the team loses the match by the worst possible score and receives ten penalty points.

The end of a game has its own steps. The administration verifies and records each result, and players report any technical difficulty they had immediately after the game ends. Referees may sign into players' accounts to set up the next lobby, and the administration tells teams how much time remains before the next draft. Team changes between games are possible too: a substitution or a change of on-stage coach must be approved by an official no later than five minutes after the previous game ends.

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