How to play Worlds 2021 Pick’em

Pick’em is back.

For this year’s edition of the League of Legends World Championship, Riot has introduced a new and improved Pick’em, improving upon the familiar formula fans have come to expect over the past few years.

As always, players will be able to pick their winners and losers, predict the outcome of every match, compete for points, and earn prizes in Pick’em 2021. But now there’s more. A new feature called the Crystal Ball and a mechanic called “The Coin” have been added to the game.

Here’s how to play Worlds 2021 Pick’em.

Crystal Ball

The Crystal Ball gives you the opportunity to predict the winner of Worlds 2021 before the event starts—the ultimate “I told you so.” If you correctly pick the winner, you’ll earn an extra 20 points, which could end up making a considerable difference to your position on the global leaderboards.

Available for 10 days prior to the play-in stage, you’ll have the opportunity to lock in your winner until the cutoff date on Oct. 5 at 1am CT.

Group stage

When the play-ins have been decided, you’ll have just 24 hours to lock in your picks for the group stage. If you’re optimistic about Team Liquid’s chances of survival, drag and drop them to the top of their group, for example. And if you’re not sold on Rogue, drag them to the bottom of their group.

The window for locking in your predictions this year will be shorter than the last due to the condensed schedule. You’ll have from Oct. 10 at 1am CT to Oct. 11 at 1am CT to settle on your picks.

Knockout stage

Once the group stage has finished and the eight teams have been locked in for the knockout stage, you’ll have the chance to pick your winners for matches at each step of the way.

• Quarterfinals: Oct. 20 at 1am CT until Oct. 22 at 1am CT
• Semifinals: Oct. 27 at 1am CT until Oct. 30 at 1am CT
• Finals: Nov. 2 at 1am CT to Nov. 6 at 1am CT

Related: Worlds 2021 Pick’em leaderboard

The Coin

The Coin is for those that are either too busy or forget to lock in their predictions. If you happen to miss the cutoff date for making your picks, The Coin will do it for you. It makes random selections on your behalf and fills in the blanks. But the points you earn from The Coin will be slightly less than if you had made the correct picks yourself.

Scoring

• Crystal Ball: You’ll earn 20 points for correctly predicting the winner of Worlds before it starts
• Group stage: You’ll earn two points for correctly predicting which teams qualify for the knockout stage, an additional three points each for placing them in the correct order, two points for correctly picking the third and fourth-place teams, and an extra two points for picking the full group for a total of 16 points
• Knockout stage: You’ll earn five points for each correct pick in the quarterfinals, 10 points for each pick in the semifinals, and 20 points for the finals
• The Coin: If The Coin makes a successful pick on your behalf, you will earn “slightly fewer” points than if you had made the pick yourself, according to Riot

Prizes

You’ll earn points and win prizes for taking part in this year’s Pick’em through in-game missions.

Crystal Ball Pick’em (Sept. 25 to Oct. 5)

• Lock in your Crystal Ball Pick
• Reward: 300 BE

Group stage Pick’em (Oct. 10 to 11)

• Lock in your groups picks
• Reward: 500 BE

Knockout stage Pick’em (Oct. 20 to Nov. 6)

• Lock in your picks for any phase of the knockout stage
• Reward: 1000 BE and Hextech chest and key

Pick’em pro (Nov. 7)

• C-tier: Earn at least 18 points playing Pick’em
• Reward: Esports capsule
• B-tier: Earn at least 34 points playing pick’em
• Reward: Esports capsule + summoner icon
• A-tier: Earn at least 50 points playing Pick’em
• Reward: three esports capsules + summoner icon + 100 BE
• S-tier: Earn at least 66 points playing Pick’em
• Reward: three esports capsules + summoner icon + Worlds rewards capsule

If you happen to correctly pick the winning team of every single match at Worlds, you’ll earn a maximum of 124 points and win a special Perfect Pick cache. Last year, just 11 out of over eight million players achieved this legendary feat.

Perfect Picks

• Pulsefire Ezreal
• Spirit Guard Udyr
• DJ Sona
• Elementalist Lux
• Gun Goddess Miss Fortune
• K/DA ALL OUT Seraphine

To be eligible for this reward, your account must be at least level 20.

Click here to participate in Worlds 2021 Pick’em.