The 2021 League of Legends World Championship (LWC) is starting soon. Originally intended to be hosted in China for the second year in a row, Riot has decided to relocate the venue for the tournament to Reykjavik, Iceland. Like last year, the tournament boasts a $2,225,000 prize pool with the winner receiving 22% of the pot, or $489,500.
Play-ins and Play-in Grouping
This year’s tournament will consist of two play-in rounds for the ten 3rd and 4th seed qualifying teams. The first play-in round will begin on October 5th and the ten play-in teams will be divided into two groups of five. Each team will play every other team in their group with a best of one format. The #1 team in each group will advance to the group stage and the #5 teams will be eliminated from the tournament.
The second play-in round will begin on October 8th and pit the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams from each bracket against each other in a series of best of 5 matches. The 3rd and 4th place teams from the same group will face off against each other and the winner will face the 2nd place team of the opposite group. The two winners of this stage will move on to the group stage, and the four losers will be eliminated from the tournament.
The Play-ins Round 1 groups are as follows:
Group A
- Hanwha Life Esports
- LNG Esports
- Infinity
- PEACE
- Red Canids
Group B
- Beyond Gaming
- Cloud9
- Unicorns of Love
- Galatasaray Esports
- DetonatioN FocusMe
Groupings for the LWC Group Stage
The seedings are in. On September 22nd, Riot announced the following groupings.
Group A
- DAMWON Gaming
- FunPlus Phoenix
- Rogue
- TBD From Play-ins
Group B
- EDward Gaming
- 100 Thieves
- T1
- TBD From Play-ins
Group C
- PSG Talon
- Fnatic
- Royal Never Give Up
- TBD From Play-ins
Group D
- MAD Lions
- Gen.G Esports
- Team Liquid
- TBD From Play-ins
Group Stage and Playoffs
This year’s group stage will take place on October 11th-13th and 15th-18th. The four play-in winners and the 12 group stage qualifiers will be divided into the four groupings listed above and be pitted against each other, in a best of 1, double round robin format. The top two teams from each group will move on to playoffs and the bottom two teams will be eliminated from the tournament.
This year’s playoffs will take place from October 22nd-25th, 30th-31st, and November 6th. The remaining eight teams will play in a single elimination bracket where the 1st place team of each bracket stage will play the 2nd place team of another bracket group. Every match in the playoffs stage will be a best of 5.
In this year’s playoffs quarterfinals, the first place in each bracket stage will get the Side Selection Privilege, meaning for the first round of each best of 5 game, the 1st place team can choose their preference of either Red or Blue side. After round 1, the losing team will get Side Selection Privilege for the remaining matches. However, following the quarterfinals, the Side Choice Privilege will be determined via coinflip.
Stay tuned for more esports news and betting picks over at EsportsAllStar.com!
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