With the abrupt change of locations, Iceland is home for another major League of Legends event this year.
Worlds is the culmination of all the leagues with the best talent gathering across the world in one venue. After the pandemic hit and the problems faced last year, we were set to go back to China for this year’s Worlds event. However, with the new Covid variant, the location was changed with a short notice, and now it is set to be held on Iceland. Let’s talk about that and the format for the upcoming Worlds 2021.
Worlds 2021 in Iceland
With such a short notice, Iceland gets the nod for Worlds 2021. As mentioned earlier, this is the 2nd major event of League of Legends this year in the location. It will be in the same arena in Iceland as MSI 2021 but in a different hall of the Laugardalshöll arena. The play-ins will start on October 5th and will last till November 6th. Furthermore, there will be no live audience for health precautions. For the full announcement, you can check this link for the details.
Worlds 2021 Dates
The play-ins will occur from October 5th to October 9th. The groups like last time will be held with a break in the middle. The first round-robin will be held on October 11-13 and the second round-robin will be on October 15-18.
Quarterfinals will be on October 22-25 and Semifinals will be on October 30th and 31st. To cap that all off, Finals will be on November 6th.
Worlds 2021 Format
Like last year, there will be three stages to the Worlds event. They are the Play-ins, Groups stage, and Knockouts stage. With the VCS not able to participate yet again, the format largely remains the same as last year. Let’s talk about the formats separately.
Play-ins
Similar to last year, the play-ins will have 10 teams. They are as follows:
- CBLoL(Brazil) Representative: Red Canids Kalunga;
- LJL (Japan) Representative: Detonation FocusMe;
- LCO (Oceania) Representative: PEACE;
- LCL (The Commonwealth of Independent States) Representative: Unicorns of Love;
- LLA (Latin America) Representative: Infinity Esports;
- TCL (Turkey) Representative: Galatasaray Esports;
- PCS (Southeast Asia) 2nd seed Representative: Beyond Gaming;
- LCS (North America) 3rd seed Representative: Cloud9;
- LCK (Korea) 4th seed Representative: Hanwha Life Esports;
- LPL (China) 4th seed Representative: LNG Esports;
Like last year, these 10 teams will be slotted into 2 groups, and it will be a single round-robin. With four slots up for grabs, the top team in each group will automatically qualify for the Groups stage. For the other 2 slots, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th team of each group will stand a chance to make it. The third and fourth placed team of each group will play a best of five against each other. The winner will face the other groups’ 2nd seed for a group stage spot.
With that, we will get the last 4 teams for the group stage at Worlds 2021. Also, the matches will be held on 11 am GMT for the play-ins.
Groups Stage and Knockouts Stage
The groups stage will have the usual 16 teams with 12 qualified through their regional league results and the other four teams coming from play-ins. Since the VCS is unable to participate, Rogue has been promoted into the group stage to fill up the open slot. The teams that have qualified for the group stage are as follows:
- LCK (Korea) Representatives: DAMWON KIA (1st seed), Gen.G Esports (2nd seed), and T1 (3rd seed);
- LPL (China) Representatives: EDward Gaming (1st seed), FunPlus Phoenix (2nd seed), and Royal Never Give Up (3rd seed);
- LEC (Europe) Representatives: MAD Lions (1st seed), Fnatic (2nd seed), and Rogue (3rd seed);
- LCS (North America) Representatives: 100 Thieves (1st seed) and Team Liquid (2nd seed);
- PCS (Southeast Asia) Representative: PSG.Talon Esports (1st seed)
These 12 teams along with four from the play-ins will be sorted into four groups. They will be playing a double round-robin to determine the top two teams of each group. Those top two teams will be sorted into a single elimination knockout bracket.
Once the knockout bracket is sorted, those teams will play best of 5 series against their opponents with a win or go home setting. The two teams that emerge winners from those best of fives on either side of the bracket will face each other in the Worlds Finals on November 6th.
The matches for the Groups stage will be held from 11 am GMT and onwards. From the Quarterfinals and onwards, the time of matches will be shifted to 12 pm GMT.
In Conclusion
With all of that confirmed, we now have a date to wait for until Worlds starts. The play-ins groups and groups stage draws will be held later and will be announced later along with the broadcast team for the event. With Worlds upon us soon, keep an eye on the LoLEsports website and twitter page for more info.
