The League of Legends World Championships start today. The highly-paid and attention-grabbing tournament will run for over a month. A total of 4 European teams are also taking part.
It’s autumn and that means for the biggest eSport on earth: World Championships! The League of Legends World Championships (Worlds) start today in North America.
Played this year for a prize pool of 2.2 million US dollars, of which the winning team pockets 489,500 US dollars. Riot has also had a new trophy designed this year. Instead of the playful and familiar Summoner’s Cup, the organiser presents a much more modern and simple cup.
The play-in phase starts on 29 September. This usually enjoys less attention, the real group stage only starts the following week. In this first round, the third and fourth-placed teams of the major regional leagues and the winners of the smaller leagues fight for four spots in the group stage. From the European League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), Fnatic and Mad Lions are in the mix. G2 Esports and Rouge are already seeded for the group stage as European winners.
Riot creates excitement with tournament mode
According to experience, the Europeans have a good chance of getting one of the four spots. Organiser and developer Riot is definitely providing excitement. In Mexico City, the 12 teams in the preliminary round will be divided into two groups. Within these groups, they will play once against each other team. The winners of the two groups will advance directly, the other two spots will be played out: First, the third and fourth-placed teams play. The winner of these matches has to play against the runner-up in the group. The winners of these matches will advance to the Worlds group stage. The matches will be played from 29 September to 4 October. The group stage starts on 7 October and runs over two weekends.
However, it will not be easy to watch the games this year. Due to the time difference, the matches will take place in the middle of the night. As usual, you can find the match schedules on LoLeSports.com. Fnatic and Mad Lions will already start their Worlds today at times that are compatible with Europe: MAD will start the play-ins at 10 p.m. against Isurus from Latin America and Fnatic will play Evil Geniuses from North America directly afterwards from around 11 p.m.. The tournament day then stretches until 5 a.m.
