As many of you may know, the League of Legends World Championships are upon us. The 22 best League of Legends teams from all leagues, all over the world have been battling it out to decide the best LoL squad of 2020.
The 22 teams are made up of teams from all of the major leagues around the world, with certain spots being dedicated to the best performing teams of major leagues and the others earning official spots via the “play-in” stage. The breakdown of teams this year is as follows:
LEC (Europe)
G2 Esports, Fnatic, Rogue, MAD Lions.
LPL (China)
Top Esports, JD Gaming, Suning, LGD Gaming.
LCS (North America)
Team Solomid, FlyQuest, Team Liquid.
LCK (Korea)
DAMWON Gaming, DRX, Gen.G Esports.
PCS (SE Asia)
Machi Esports, PSG Talon.
Play-in Contenders
INTZ (CBLOL), Unicorns of Love (LCL), V3 Esports (LJL), Rainbow7 (LLA), Legacy Esports (OPL), Papara SuperMassive (TCL).
The group stage World Championships began earlier this month and we are now in the heart of the event. Quarterfinal matchups are in the process of being played, and the field this year looks as competitive as ever. Here is a recap of how the event has unfolded thus far:
Play-in Group Stage
This stage is completed prior to the beginning of the aforementioned “group stage,” which features all of the teams mentioned above. In this stage, ten teams are split into two divisions, playing in a round robin format with the top team from each division moving on. The 3rd and 4th place teams from each division play one another, and the winner of that matchup plays the 2nd place team from the other bracket.
Stage One Results (round robin play):
Stage Two Results:
From here we see that PSG Talon and Team Liquid advanced from stage one, with Unicorns of Love and Legacy Esports finishing second and moving to the end of round 2, where they faced the winners of the 3rd/4th game.
At the end of stage one, Unicorns of Love and LGD moved on to join Team Liquid and PSG Talon in the World Championships.
Group Stage
Following the conclusion of both stages of the play-in stage, the remaining sixteen teams are split into groups of four. Here are the groups for the 2020 World Championship:
In this stage, the following rules apply:
Groups based on seeding.
Double round robin format.
All rounds are best of one.
Top two teams advance to the Knockout Stage.
The following teams advanced:
Group A: Suning, G2 Esports
Group B: DAMWON Gaming, JD Gaming
Group C: Gen.G, Fnatic
Group D: Top Esports, DRX
These teams advance to the Knockout stage.
Knockout Stage
This takes us to where we are today, as the Quarterfinal matchups took place this past weekend and the semifinals begin this Saturday at 6 AM.
The rules of the Knockout Stage are as follows:
Bracket is randomized at the start of the round.
All rounds are best of 5 series.
Single elimination.
Here are how the quarterfinals matchups played out.
DAMWON vs. DRX
This was a lopsided match and everyone knew it. DAMWON had just beaten DRX 3-0 in the LoL Champions Korea final. This match went no different, with DAMWON dominating from the start and sweeping DRX again in straight set fashion.
Suning vs. JD Gaming
These two teams had not met since week 2 of the LPL Summer Split, making this matchup the closer of the two quarterfinals matches. Suning took the series 3-1.
Topsports vs. Fnatic
This matchup had the highest total viewership of any match thus far in the event, totalling 2.4 million peak concurrent viewers. Europe’s darling Fnatic jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but Top eventually found their footing and secured an epic 3 round comeback in straight sets. Fnatic goes home.
Gen.G vs. G2 Esports
G2 took this series in a straight 3-0 sweep, securing their spot in the LoL World Championship Semifinals for the third straight year. You can read more about the matchup and G2’s dominance here.
Semifinal Round
This takes us to where we are today, with the semifinal round beginning this weekend. Here are the two semifinal matchups for the weekend.
G2 Esports vs. DAMWON Gaming
As you can see below, Damwon is heavily favored to win this matchup. They have been the two most dominant teams in Worlds, both sweeping their quarterfinal matchup 3-0. This one should be exciting to watch.
Bet on G2 (+183) || Bet on DAMWON (-250).
TOP Esports vs. Suning Gaming
Both TOP and Suning hail from China and play in the LPL, making this an exciting matchup between familiar foes. This match is predicted to be a bit closer than the prior, and should be an exciting contest to watch and bet on as well!
Bet on TOP (-193) || Bet on Suning (+142).
Grand Finals
Following the results from the semifinal matchups and the elimination of two more teams, we will be left with two final contestants to play in the Grand Finals of the 2020 League of Legends World Championships. These teams will likely play the following weekend.
