The Clash Royale League, or CRL, is Clash Royale's official esports competition. It is held annually in the second half of the year and ends with the World Finals event in early December. In the CRL, players compete in Clash Royale battles in order to be crowned the World Champion and win cash prizes. A new format was introduced for 2021.
CRL coverage is broadcast live and made available for subsequent viewing on the Clash Royale Esports YouTube channel. Standings and teams lists, CRL-related news, and other CRL information is made available on esports.clashroyale.com.
Format (2018 – 2020)[]
| This section describes content that has been replaced or removed from the game. This information is kept here for historical purposes. |
Each season consisted of 3 stages that players and teams progressed through on the path to the World Finals. At each stage, players/teams that ranked high enough moved on, while the rest were eliminated. In all stages, Clash Royale battles were played with Tournament Standard-level Cards and Towers.
Stage 1: 20-Win Challenge[]
CRL started with a 20-Win Special Event Challenge or a Global Tournament in-game. Players who achieved 20 wins qualified for one of the regional Combine Qualifiers.
Stage 2: Combine[]
The Combine Qualifiers were regional live events in which players compete in a tournament, and representatives from Esports teams competing in CRL attend and observe the tournament in order to recruit promising players to join their teams and move on to the CRL.
Stage 3: CRL[]
In the 9-week CRL competition, the Esports teams registered in the league brand their best players to battle against players from other teams in their global region. In each match-up, one team competed against another team in 1v1, 2v2, and King of the Hill.
- 1v1: A player from one team battles against a player from the other team. The team that gets the best of 3 battles wins the 1v1 set.
- 2v2: Two players from each team play 2v2 battles. The team that gets the best of 3 of these battles wins the 2v2 set.
- King of the Hill: Each team chooses 3 players for the set to play 1v1 battles. After each battle, the losing player is eliminated from the set. Whichever team eliminates the opponent team's 3 players first wins the set. This mode is commonly called "KOF” due to resemblance to the video game The King of Fighters.
Whichever team won 2 of those 3 sets would earn a win. At the end of the season, the teams with the most wins in their region moved on to compete in the World Finals.
Stage 4: World Finals[]
At the World Final, Asian Games or World Cyber Games event at the end of the season, the top players or teams from the CRL competed in a final tournament for the World Champion title and cash prizes.
Format (2021-2024)[]
There will be 8 seasons of CRL, with each season lasting a month and consisting of 3 stages that players will progress through on the path to the World Finals. At each stage, players that rank high enough will move on, while the rest will be eliminated.
Stage 1: Trophy Race[]
The first prerequisite required in order to have a chance to qualify for CRL is to be within the top 1000 spots on the global Trophy leaderboard by the end of the season. Qualifying players are contacted directly via the in-game messaging. Players will each gain a certain amount of points towards qualifying for the World Finals depending on their ranking:
| Ranking | Points earned |
|---|---|
| 1-10 | 40 |
| 11-50 | 25 |
| 51-100 | 20 |
| 101-500 | 5 |
| 501-1000 | 1 |
Stage 2: Monthly Qualifier[]
Players that complete Stage 1 will then compete against other qualifying players in the Monthly Qualifier, which will take place over 2 days. The battle format for these qualifiers is Duels, a 1v1 best-of-3 game mode. Before the first day, players will sign up for 1 of 4 time slots to play in a Swiss format. After the first day, the top 8 players in each time slot will advance to the second day. On the second day, the 32 players will be sorted into groups of 4 and play Duels in a double round-robin format. The top player in each group will advance to the Monthly Final, for a total of 8 players. If there is a tie between the results of two or more players in a group, their position in the Trophy Race will be used as a tiebreaker, with the highest placing player advancing. All players in the Monthly Qualifier will gain 5 points for each win they earned.
Monthly Qualifier Cash Prizes[]
| Ranking | Cash prize (USD) |
|---|---|
| 9th - 16th | $1,500 |
| 17th - 32nd | $1,000 |
The top 8 players will earn a cash prize based on their placement at the Monthly Final.
Stage 3: Monthly Final[]
The top 8 players from the Monthly Qualifier will then compete in the Monthly Final, which will take place over 2 days. Like the Monthly Qualifier, Duels will be the game format played. Over the two-day span, the players will compete in a double-elimination bracket for points and cash prizes.
| Ranking | Points earned |
|---|---|
| 1st | 100 |
| 2nd | 70 |
| 3rd/4th | 50 |
| 5th - 8th | 35 |
Monthly Final Cash Prizes[]
| Ranking | Cash prize (USD) |
|---|---|
| 1st | $20,000 |
| 2nd | $10,000 |
| 3rd | $6,000 |
| 4th | $4,000 |
| 5th - 6th | $3,000 |
| 7th - 8th | $2,000 |
After the last season, the 24 players who have accumulated the most points will automatically advance to the World Finals. If there is a tie in points, the following tiebreakers will apply, with subsequent ones taking effect if the previous tiebreaker failed to determine a winner:
- Total number of Monthly Final wins
- Average placement across all Monthly Finals
- Average placement across all Trophy Race seasons
Stage 3a: Last Chance Qualifier[]
In the month following the last Monthly Final event, the next 32 ranked players in points (25th - 56th) will compete for the remaining 8 spots in the World Finals in a single-elimination tournament. Like the Monthly Qualifier, Duels will be the game mode played. The tournament will conclude after the round of 32 and round of 16 have completed, with the 8 players in the top of the bracket advancing to the World Finals.
Stage 4: World Finals[]
At World Finals, the 32 qualifying players will compete for the title of World Champion and earn their share of the prize pool.
World Finals Prize Pool (approximate)[]
| Position | Cash prize (USD) |
|---|---|
| 1st | $200,000 |
| 2nd | $100,000 |
| 3rd/4th | $70,000 |
| 5th - 8th | $35,000 |
| 9th - 16th | $25,000 |
| 17th - 32nd | $15,000 |
Crown Championship Global Series[]
2017 was the first year for Clash Royale's official esports competition. The 2017 season was called the Crown Championship Global Series, and the format was different. Rather than teams competing in stages 3 and 4, individual players competed alone in exclusively 1v1 matches against other solo players. In 2018, the competition was renamed to the Clash Royale League, and the format was changed to the form described above. In 2021, the format changed back to solo 1v1 matches, more closely resembling the format used in 2017.
World Finals[]
2017: London[]
2017 World Finals Arena
The 2017 Crown Championship Global Series World Finals took place in London, England on Sunday December 3. The top 16 players of the season competed in a single-elimination bracket in which each match-up of two players was decided by best of 3 (best of 5 in the final round) 1v1 battles. In each match-up, each player could choose a single card to ban for the entirety of that match-up.
Sergioramos:) was crowned the 1st-place winner and won $150,000 with runner-up, MusicMaster, winning $75,000. The eliminated semi-finalists, Tali and Winds, each won $27,500. Quarter-finalists, Berin, Electr1fy, quiet, and Adrian Piedra, each won $15,000. The remaining competitors, Amaterasu, loupanji, CMcHugh, X-Bow Master, Fuchi, Coltonw83, Geltube, and YaoYao, each won $7,500.
2018: Tokyo[]
The 2018 CRL World Finals took place in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday December 1. The top team from each of the six CRL regions competed:
| Rank | Team | CRL Region | Prize money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Nova Esports | China | $150,000 |
| 2nd | Vivo Keyd | Latin America | $100,000 |
| 3rd | PONOS Sports | Asia (other) | $50,000 |
| KING-ZONE DragonX | Japan (Host) | ||
| 5th | Immortals | North America | $20,000 |
| Team Queso | Europe |
2019: Los Angeles[]
The 2019 CRL World Finals took place in Los Angeles, United States on Sunday December 8. The top team from each of the six CRL regions competed:
| Rank | Team | CRL Region | Prize money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Liquid | North America | $150,000 |
| 2nd | W.EDGM | China | $100,000 |
| 3rd | SK Gaming | Europe | $50,000 |
| FAV Gaming | Japan | ||
| 5th | OGN | Asia (other) | $25,000 |
| Nova | China |
2020: Shanghai[]
The 2020 CRL World Finals took place in Shanghai, China between December 5 and 6, with part of it being played online. 8 qualifying teams competed in best-of-5 sets in a single-elimination format (along with a tiebreaker match for 3rd place).
| Rank | Team | CRL Region | Prize money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Team Queso | Europe | $100,000 |
| 2nd | SK Gaming | Europe | $70,000 |
| 3rd | PONOS Sports | Asia (other) | $50,000 |
| 4th | paiN Gaming | Latin America | $40,000 |
| 5th - 8th | FAV Gaming | Japan | $30,000 |
| Tribe Gaming | North America | ||
| Nova Esports | China | ||
| W.EDGM | China |
Asian Games[]
2018: Jakarta[]
Clash Royale was an event in the 2018 Asian Games as a demonstration event. See the Wikipedia page for more details.
| Rank | Name | In-Game Name | Country | CRL Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Ridel Yesaya Sumarandak | BenZerRidel | Indonesia (Host) | KIX |
| 2nd | Huang Chenghui | Lciop | China | Nova Esports |
| 3rd | Huỳnh Đức Huy | Legend | Vietnam | ? |
World Cyber Games[]
2019: Xi'an[]
World Cyber Games was re-opened in July 2019 after being discontinued for five years (2014-2018). This was the first time it featured Clash Royale.
| Rank | Name | In-Game Name | Country | CRL Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jackson Wahl | JuicyJ | North America | ? |
| 2nd | Efe Yenice | Efemgg | Turkey | -- |
| 3rd | Hubert Lee | Taoki | Taiwan | KIX |