Flux-driven two-fluid simulations in a diverted tokamak exhibit a confinement transition when a critical heating threshold is exceeded, as in experimental observations of the L-H transition. The simulations show that electromagnetic drift-wave turbulence spontaneously generates a sheared E x B flow responsible for transport suppression in the edge. The toroidal-field asymmetry of the transition, here reproduced in simulations for the first time, arises from time-reversal symmetry breaking by finite collisionality, as demonstrated by a quasilinear calculation of the turbulent momentum flux. First-principles scaling laws are derived for the L-H power threshold in the high- and low-density branches, for the density minimum, and for the minimum power, all matching or surpassing the accuracy of existing empirical scalings.