LoL World Championships 2021 Groups Revealed
As the League of Legends World Championships 2021 beckons, teams have been wildly anticipating who they have to play in Iceland.
Preparation has been well underway for the sides, but with one eye on counter-strategies and combating their opponents, practice can only take you so far.
Now, the Play-Ins groups and Group Stages have been revealed, allowing teams to identify which League of Legends giants that they'll have to knock over.
With the help of G2 Esports' Marcin "Jankos" Jankowski, the League of Legends World Championships 2021 groups are as follows:
Play Ins:
First off, the Play-Ins will consist of ten teams, split into two groups of five. After a single round-robin format, the triumphant group winners will advance directly to the Group Stages, whilst third and fourth will play in a straight shootout to face the team in second place from their opposing groups, creating the two final teams that will then advance to Groups.
Group A:
- Hanwha Life Esports
- LNG Esports
- Infinity Esports
- Peace
- Red Canids
Group B:
- Beyond Gaming
- Cloud9
- Unicorns of Love
- Galatasaray Esports
- DetonatioN FocusMe
Group Stages:
The Group Stages will boast the best 16 teams in the world. Quite simply, these are the best of the bunch, and only the most fearsome teams can advance.
After a double-round-robin format in groups, only two teams will advance from each group, as the conquest to become the world champions heats up.
Group A:
- DAMWON KIA
- FunPlus Phoenix
- Rogue
- Play-Ins (1)
Group B:
- EDward Gaming
- 100 Thieves
- T1
- Play-Ins (2)
Group C:
- PSG Talon
- Fnatic
- Royal Never Give Up
- Play-Ins (3)
Group D:
- MAD Lions
- Gen.G
- Team Liquid
- Play-Ins (4)
For the most part, the groups look evenly matched, although Rogue will be wincing after being placed in another gauntlet with the reigning champions. On the other hand, third seed T1 will be pleasantly surprised with their group, as the best player ever in Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok returns to the world stage against a debuting 100 Thieves and EDG, who like Faker have had a lengthy absence from the pinnacle event.
Play-Ins will kick off on October 5, with Group Stages starting a week later on October 11.
