Four down, fifteen to go—but the journey to determine this year’s League of Legends world champion has only just began. Still, even in the Play-In Stage, we’ve seen one of the big regions fall short of expectations.
100 Thieves’ straightforward loss to PSG Talon in the lower bracket final consigned them to an early exit at Worlds. With the Swiss Stage first-round matchups determined, we now know that T1 will begin their title defense with a match against Top Esports, while LEC fans might reasonably hope for an early success with G2’s draw against paiN Gaming and Fnatic’s matchup with Dplus KIA—but supporters of MAD Lions KOI likely drew a sharp intake of breath seeing LPL Summer winners Bilibili Gaming as their first-round opposition. In an interview with Dot Esports, Supa expressed hope that they would meet a North American side to get revenge, but it looks like he’ll have to wait for a chance to do so.
GAM Esports’ reward for a successful Play-In Stage campaign was a round one matchup with FlyQuest, while PSG Talon will also have a tough assignment in the form of LCK Summer winners Hanwha Life Esports.
The other matchups featuring directly qualified teams are Team Liquid vs. LNG Esports and Weibo Gaming going up against Gen.G, the monsters of the second pool.
This year’s League of Legends World Championship will shuttle the squads between Berlin, Paris, and London to determine this year’s greatest squad. The Swiss Stage of this year’s Worlds will take place in two parts, first between Oct. 3 and Oct.7, then, after a short break, the rest of the placements will be determined between Oct. 10 and Oct. 13. The first day of play will only feature the round one matchups—all best-of-one affairs—and Oct. 4 will feature all 1-0 and 0-1 matches, still sticking to a best-of-one format. From then on, the deciders will all get their dedicated day of play, with best-of-three battles to determine the ultimate fate of the participants.
