When and in which format is the LoL World Championship actually played? We have all the information for you at a glance.
There are only a few weeks left until the best of the best compete against each other in League of Legends at the LoL Worlds. The event will be divided into three major blocks:
Play-In-Phase
First of all, the Play-Ins will take place from 5 to 9 October. In these, a total of four teams can qualify for the group phase of the final round. First, the participating ten teams will be divided into two groups of five teams each.
Then, in a simple round-robin procedure, everyone plays against everyone and the first place of each group automatically advances to the group stage. To award the last two tickets, the third and fourth place of each group will play each other and then a best-of-five against the second place will decide who will solve one of the last tickets.
Through the play-ins, the first seeds from Brazil’s CBLoL league, Japan’s LJL, Oceania’s LCO, the Commonwealth of Independent States’ LCL, Latin America’s LLA and Turkey’s TCL will have to play:
- RED Canids
- DetonatioN FocusMe
- PEACE
- Unicorns of Love
- Infinity Esports
- Galatasaray Esports
Also included are the second seed of the Southeast Asian PCS, the third seed of the North American LCS and the fourth seeds of the Chinese LPL and Korean LCK:
- Beyond Gaming
- Cloud9
- LNG Esports
- Hanwha Life Esports
Here’s a quick rundown of the #Worlds2021 tournament format. Watch live Oct 5th – Nov 6th (PT) at https://t.co/lh1tk7wEe0 pic.twitter.com/vbJWR91dmX
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 15, 2021
Group Stage
The Main Stage will then start on 11 October. From 11 to 13 and 15 to 18 October, the Group Stage will take place. The four winning teams from the play-ins join the twelve teams that have already qualified for the Worlds group stage in their leagues:
- DWG KIA (South Korea, LCK)
- Gen.G (South Korea, LCK)
- T1 (South Korea, LCK)
- EDward Gaming (China, LPL)
- FunPlus Phoenix (China, LPL)
- Royal Never Give Up (China, LPL)
- MAD Lions (Europe, LEC)
- Fnatic (Europe, LEC)
- Rogue (Europe, LEC)
- 100 Thieves (North America, LCS)
- Team Liquid (North America, LCS)
- PSG Talon (South East Asia, PCS)
In four groups of four, the respective teams will play each other in a double round robin. The top two places in each group will advance to the knockout round. If there is a tie within the groups, it will be decided beforehand with a tiebreaker.
K.-o.-Round
In the knockout phase or playoffs, the best eight teams compete against each other in a single-elimination system. The respective matches will be drawn after the group stage on 18 October. All playoff matches will be played in a best-of-five format. After the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, the world champion will be crowned on 6 November.
Worlds 2021 is heading to Iceland! Tune in October 5 – November 6 at https://t.co/lh1tk7wEe0. pic.twitter.com/fTFxf42yFH
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 9, 2021
Where will the Worlds take place?
Due to the ongoing pandemic and the regulations that go along with it, the World Championships will not take place in China this year as planned, but in Reykjavik, Iceland. Originally, two teams from Vietnam’s VCS were also to take part, but due to travel restrictions, the league has to forgo participation in an international tournament for the third time in a row. The third LEC seed Rogue was therefore immediately moved up from the play-ins to the group stage.
