The World Championship received some format changes this year, so it’s the occasion to have a reminder of how the seeding works now!
The World Championship goes in three phases: play-ins, group stage, and playoffs. Team are seeded either into the group stage or into the play-ins where they’ll have to fight their way towards the second phase.
Seeding per region
Overall, here are all the spots per region as well as the teams that have already qualified:
Major regions:
- LPL (China): 4 teams (Top Esports, JD Gaming, Suning, LGD Gaming)
- LEC (Europe): 4 teams (Fnatic, G2 Esports, Rogue, MAD Lions)
- LCK (Korea): 3 teams (DRX, TBD, TBD)
- LCS (North America): 3 teams (FlyQuest, Team Liquid, Team Solo Mid)
Minor regions:
- VCS (Vietnam): 2 teams (Team Flash, TBD)
- PCS (South-East Asia): 2 teams (Machi Esports, PSG Talon)
- CBLOL (Brazil): 1 team (TBD)
- TCL (Turkey): 1 team (TBD)
- LJL (Japan): 1 team (TBD)
- LLA (Latin America): 1 team (Rainbow7)
- OPL (Oceania): 1 team (Legacy Esports)
- LCL (Commonwealth of Independent States): 1 team (Unicorns Of Love)
In bold are the changes compared to last year.
The LMS disbanded, and in its stead came the Pacific Championship Series (PCS), tournament created from merging the LMS and the LST. These two leagues used to get 3 and 1 spots, respectively, and the PCS now only gets 2.
The two seeds freed up by this change have been allocated to China and Europe that now both get to send 4 teams to Worlds instead of 3. This was based on recent international performances, with the LEC and LPL having the best showings at the international tournaments of 2018 and 2019.
Lastly, the VCS used to only have a single spot, with a second one being awarded to the minor region doing the best at MSI. In the absence of an Mid-Season Invitational this year, Vietnam gets to keep the second spot for the 2020 World Championship due to having the best showing at MSI 2018 and 2019.
Seeding into Play-ins and Group stage
Riot has not yet confirmed which teams would be seeded into the group stage and which ones would have to go through the play-ins. Here is how we can expect the distribution to be based on the previous years – reminder that this isn’t official information.
Group stage:
- 3 teams from the LPL
- 3 teams from the LEC
- 2 teams from the LCK
- 2 teams from the LCS
- 1 team from the PCS
- 1 team from the VCS
- 4 teams advancing from Play-ins
Play-ins:
- 1 team from the LPL
- 1 team from the LEC
- 1 team from the LCK
- 1 team from the LCS
- 1 team from the PCS
- 1 team from the VCS
- 1 team from each of the other minor regions (6 teams total)
This would mean three changes from the last year:
- As the LEC gets its fourth seed, it means a third team in the group stage (and the last one still in play-ins).
- As the LPL gets its fourth seed, it means that it keeps three teams in the group stage, and the fourth starts in play-ins.
- The LMS and LST used to have a total of two teams in groups and another two in play-ins. This goes down to one in groups and one in play-ins for the PCS, freeing the two spots now taken by the LEC and LPL, respectively.
This is how the World Championship seeding will look like this year. Stay tuned for more information as soon as Riot confirms it, and for the upcoming groups draw!
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