With the end of the LCS regionals to determine the third place team to represent North America and Europe, all of the teams attending Worlds have been decided. This year, the tournament will take place in several locations across the United States. The groups will be played on October 6-9 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, CA while the quarterfinals will move to The Chicago Theatre in Chicago, IL from October 13-16. The semifinals will take place on October 21-22 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY and the finals will be played on October 29 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.[1]
The Teams
From the North American LCS, TSM, CLG, and Cloud9 will represent their region on home soil during the duration of Worlds. TSM placed second during the spring split and took the summer split by storm by defeating Cloud9 to take first place. CLG placed first in the spring split and fourth in the summer split, but had enough circuit points to take the second seed for Worlds. Cloud9 had to get through Team EnVy and Immortals in the gauntlet to win the final spot.[2]
The representatives of the European LCS are G2, H2K, and Splyce. G2 dominated the European field during both splits, easily taking first place in both. H2K finished with a solid third and fourth place in the summer and spring splits, respectively. Their high placings garnered them enough circuit points to take the second Worlds seed leaving Splyce to top the gauntlet to win the last spot.
Korea has been hailed as the strongest League of Legends region and it’s no surprise that last year’s Worlds finalists have both returned as the top two seeds from Korea. SKT won the spring split by defeating ROX Tigers, but ROX Tigers won the summer split. Because SKT did not even make it to the finals of the summer playoffs, ROX Tigers took the first seed while SKT took the second. Surprisingly, it was Samsung Galaxy that took the final Korean Worlds’ spot triumphing over the scary-looking KT Rolster in the gauntlet.
From China, the undisputed top team, EDG, grabbed the first seed. EDG’s revitalization after MSI allowed them to take a perfect regular season during summer and first place in the summer split. RNG comfortably took the second seed while a surprising I May grabbed the final spot.
The world saw the potential of the LMS teams during MSI when the Flash Wolves secured their region a higher spot in Worlds by placing in the top 4 including two wins over SKT in the groups. As expected, they took the first seed in their region while their long-time rivals, ahq, took the other spot.
The two wildcard spots were hotly contested as the Oceanic, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and South American teams fought for the coveted two spots. Eventually INTZ e-Sports from Brazil and Albus NoX Luna from Russia won the two spots to represent their countries at Worlds.
References
[1] https://www.lolesports.com/en_US/articles/2016-world-championship-hits-north-america
[2] https://blog.cyberpowerpc.com/2016/09/06/cloud9-and-splyce-make-it-to-worlds/
Watch Worlds from the comfort of your home using one of our computers or laptops for the highest quality.