Championship Point Scenarios: How your favorite NA LCS team can qualify for Worlds.

With the Spring Promotion over, we finally know which ten teams will participate in the 2015 Summer Split. Enemy eSports and Team Dragon Knights (TDK) qualified out of the NA Challenger Series while Dignitas retained their spot with a close fought victory over Fusion. While none of these teams earned any Champion Points in the Spring Split, that doesn’t mean we should just assume they won’t be able to qualify for the World Championship. In fact, a team has qualified for Worlds in their first split in the NA LCS every year since it was instituted. Enemy eSports and TDK will be looking to join LMQ and C9 in this exclusive club and, with a whole collection of flawed teams fighting for 2nd place behind TSM, they will get their opportunity.

Championship Points Break Down

Summer Split performance carries slightly more weight than Spring Split performance. The first place team in the Summer Split automatically qualifies along with the team with the most combined Championship points between the Spring and Summer split. The final spot will be decided by a gauntlet style bracket with the next four highest scoring teams. This creates some interesting scenarios where a variety of teams could earn that automatic qualification. Please note that all ties in Championship Points will be decided by whichever team earned the most points in the Summer Split.

Team by Team Championship Point Scenarios 

Team Solo Mid (90 CP)

Automatically Qualifies for Worlds if…

• they finish in 1st or 2nd place
• if they finish in 3rd place and Cloud 9 doesn’t finish in 2nd place.
• if they finish in 4th place and Cloud 9 doesn’t finish in 2nd or 3rd place and Liquid doesn’t finish in 2nd place.
• if they finish in 5th or 6th place, Cloud 9 doesn’t finish in 2nd, 3rd or 4th place, Liquid doesn’t finish in 2nd or 3rd place and Impulse doesn’t finish 2nd.

Cloud 9 (70 CP)

Automatically Qualifies for Worlds if …

• they finish in 1st or 2nd place.
• they finish in 3rd place and TSM or Liquid don’t finish in 2nd place.
• they finish in 4th place and TSM or Liquid don’t finish in 2nd or 3rd place.

Team Liquid (50 CP)

Automatically Qualifies for Worlds if…

• they finish in 1st place.
• they finish in 2nd place and TSM doesn’t finish in 3rd place.
• they finish in 3rd place, TSM doesn’t finish in 2nd or 4th place and Cloud 9 or Impulse doesn’t finish in 2nd place.

Team Impulse (30 CP)

Automatically Qualifies for Worlds if…

• the finish in 1st place
• they finish in 2nd place, TSM doesn’t finish in 3rd or 4th place and Cloud 9 doesn’t finish in 3rd place.
• they finish in 3rd place, TSM and Cloud 9 don’t finish in 2nd, 4th, 5th or 6th, and Liquid doesn’t finish in 2nd or 4th.

Counter Logic Gaming, Gravity (10 CP)

Automatically Qualifies for Worlds if…

• they finish in 1st place.
• they finish in 2nd place, TSM doesn’t finish in 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th, Cloud 9 doesn’t finish in 3rd or 4th and Liquid doesn’t finish in 3rd.

Team 8, Dignitas, Enemy eSports and TDK (0 CP)

Automatically Qualify for Worlds if…

• they finish in 1st place
• the finish in 2nd place, TSM doesn’t finish in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, Cloud 9 doesn’t finish in 3rd or 4th, and Liquid doesn’t finish in 3rd.

The key to the Summer Split will be the fight between Liquid, Impulse and Cloud 9 for that 2nd World Championship spot. While TSM would have to tank pretty hard to not make it to Worlds, this trinity of teams are all close enough in Championship Points and current strength that whichever one of them finishes higher than the other two is likely to snag that 2nd guaranteed spot.

Notes:

• The key to the Summer Split will be the fight between Liquid, Impulse and Cloud 9 for that 2nd World Championship spot. While TSM would have to tank pretty hard to not make it to Worlds, this trinity of teams are all close enough in Championship Points and current strength that whichever one of them finishes higher than the other two is likely to snag that 2nd guaranteed spot.
• The ideal situation for any team that doesn’t get first is for TSM to get 1st. Removing the team that started the split with the most Championship Points from competition for the 2nd spot means that your team doesn’t have to contend with that 90 Championship Point advantage. As you’ll notice above, TSM has a lot of fallback options to earn that AQ spot.
• Cloud 9 also has a fairly easy route. They can get top 3, and as long as neither Liquid or TSM finished 2nd, they automatically earn the AQ spot.
• As you can see above, a strong performance in the Spring Split gives a team a lot of leeway in the Summer Split. Riot did a good job of making the Spring Split mean something while also giving every team in the Summer Split a chance to qualify for ther World Championship.
• For EU LCS fans, you can substitute your favorite EU LCS team into their corresponding place in the rankings to find out what they need to qualify for Worlds.

*Charts courtesy of esportspedia