The 2019 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage is almost upon us, kicking off League’s biggest event of the year.
Representatives from Brazil, Russia, South Korea, North America, Europe, Japan, Latin America, Hong Kong, South East Asia, Turkey, and Vietnam will fight it out in a double round-robin format.
The four first-place teams will then face off against their second-place counterpart in a best-of-five series before advancing to the main event’s group stage.
There are many hard-hitting teams competing in the play-in stage, including Splyce, who finished third in the LEC, North America’s third seed underdogs, Clutch Gaming, and South Korea’s up-and-coming talenton DAMWON Gaming. Russia’s (LCL) Unicorns of Love and Turkey’s (TLC) Royal Youth also can’t be underestimated.
Format
Round one
- Twelve teams participate.
- Teams are drawn into four groups based on seeding.
- Double round-robin
- Each match is a best-of-one.
- The top two teams from each group advance to the second round.
Round two
- Eight teams participate.
- First-place teams from round one face a second-place team.
- Each match is a best-of-five.
- The four winning teams advance to the next stage of the event.
Participants
The following teams will compete in the play-in stage:
- CBLOL (Brazil): Flamengo Esports
- LCL (Russia): Unicorns of Love
- LCK third seed (South Korea): DAMWON Gaming
- LCS third seed (North America): Clutch Gaming
- LEC third seed (Europe): Splyce
- LJL (Japan): DetonatioN FocusMe
- LLA (Latin America): Isurus Gaming
- LMS third seed: Hong Kong Attitude
- OPL (Australia): Team Mammoth
- LST (Southeast Asia): MEGA
- TCL (Turkey): Royal Youth
- VCS second seed (Vietnam): Lowkey Esports
Schedule
Play-in stage (Round one): Oct. 2 to 5
Play-in stage (Round two): Oct. 7 to 8
Stream
Worlds can be watched on Riot Games’ official Twitch channel. Multiple alternative language streams will also be available, each commentated by a different set of hosts.
