The pinnacle of every League of Legends season is right around the corner, with 2016 League of Legends World Championship kicking off in October. In this article we will explain everything you need to know about the competition. Predictions for the matches will be available soon at betting-previews.com.
World Championship or “Worlds” is an international e-sport event lasting for around 5 weeks of competitive play with 16 best teams in the world battling it out for the title. Worlds are taking place in different region every year, this year being in North America.
The 16 participating teams consist of teams being selected from each region. The number of seeds each region gets is as follows:
– North America – NA League Championship Series (NA LCS) – 3 seeds
– Europe – EU League Championship Series (EU LCS) – 3 seeds
– Korea – League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) – 3 seeds
– China – League of Legends Pro League (LPL) – 3 seeds
– Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan – League of Legends Master Series (LMS) – 2 seeds
– Wildcard regions determined at the International Wildcard Qualifier (IWCQ) – 2 seeds
Teams that will be competing in World Championship are as follows
LCK (Korea):
– ROX Tigers
– SK Telecom T1
– Samsung Galaxy
LPL (China):
– Edward Gaming
– Royal Never Give Up
– I MAY
LMS (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan):
– Flash Wolves
– ahq e-Sports Club
NA LCS (North America):
– TSM
– Counter Logic Gaming
– Cloud9
EU LCS (Europe):
– G2 Esports
– H2K
– Splyce
IWCQ (Wildcard regions):
– INTZ
– Albus NoX Luna
GROUP STAGE
Worlds are played in group stage, followed by knockout stage.
In the group stage teams are divided in 4 groups, each group consisting of 4 teams. In the groups, each team plays other team twice (double Round Robin-style). The group stage is followed by knockout stage, where 8 teams, who advanced battle it out in best of 5, single elimination bracket. The winner of Knockout stage will be crowned as World Champion of 2016.
The teams do not only compete for fame, but also for fortune, that is given to every team competing. The prize pool for 2016 World Championship is over $2 millions. Of course their peace of the cake is determined by their performance.
– Champions: 1,000,000$
– 2nd place: 250,000$
– 3rd/4th place: 150,000$
– 5th-8th place: 75,000$
– 9th-12th place: 45,000$
– 13th-16th place: 25,000$
RULES
The rules do not differentiate much from Mid-Season Invitational. The only change is side selection update.
SIDE SELECTION
Team sides will be selected by a coin flip during Group Stage. As mentioned before in the group stage, each team will play every other team twice, once on the blue side and once on the red side. Then in Quarterfinals, the higher seed will have side selection for all odd games, whereas the lower seed will have side selection for all even games. It sound complicated but it’s quite simple.
The higher seed can choose to play game 1 on blue side, but game 3 and 5 on red side, on the other side lower seed may choose to play game 2 on red and 4 on blue side.
DATE AND TIME OF COMPETITION STAGES
GROUP STAGE
September 29 – October 2
October 6 – 9
at San Francisco, CA
QUARTERFINALS
October 13 – 16
at Chicago, IL
SEMIFINALS
October 21 – 22
at New York, NY
FINALS
October 29
at Los Angeles, CA
TEAMS
Now let’s take a look at each team, their roster and short description.
GROUP A
ROX Tigers
Team has been formed in 2014 and is formerly known as KOO Tigers. Their roster was made out of players pulled from NaJin Sword, NaJin Shield and Incredible Miracle. They were arguably one of the best teams in LCK, but still they were always a bit short of winning, as it seemed as victory always eluded them due to SKT T. The year 2016 was better for the Tigers, as they finally won their first LCK split, letting Faker and his friends in shadow of their success. Now after getting their first LCK title, they are hoping to repeat their success in 2016 World Campionship.
COACH: Nocheor “Nofe” Jeong
G2 eSports
G2 eSports dominated EU competitions and it seemed they got better with each match played. Much of their good performance can be linked to their mid-laner “Perkz” and jungler “Trick”. After adding the superb duo-bot (“Zven” and “mithy”) their performances skyrocket, winning the Summer Split with ease. They are showing to be extremely strong teams and represent a good opportunity to bring Summoner’s Cup back to EU.
COACH: Joey “Youngbuck” Steltenpool
Counter Logic Gaming
Well known team, and for a good reason. They were the powerhouse of LoL competitions for a while and were a dominant force when it all started. However their performance has fallen since the old days.
CLG came back with the title in NA LCS Championship in 2015 and showed they should not be forgotten. Following that title, CLG won another Championship in 2016 NA LCS Spring Playoffs, thus advancing into 2016 Mid-Season Invitational, where they made it to the finals. Now heading into the finals, they are a decently strong team, will they reach the finals at the two international events in a row is yet to be seen.
COACH: Anthony “Zikzlol” Gray
Albus NoX Luna
Formerly known as Hard Random have achieved their 5th title in CIS regional competition. Despite having a new name they still got the same ambitions. Previous events were not so good for them as they did not achieve much. Despite that they do not give up easily. Even though we cannot expect from them to lift the cup, they are still capable of getting a few wins throughout the competition.
COACH: Konstantin “Ansva” Chanchikov
GROUP B
Flash Wolves
Founded in 2013, they have been a strong force in LMS for a while now. IN their 3 year exsistance, they have accumulated many trophies; 1st place in 2015 LMS Spring Split, 2nd place in 2015 LMS Summer Split and 1st place in 2016 LMS Spring and Summer Split.
The most successful team in LMS is now striving to extend their good performances into World Championship. Many people know them as arch rivals to Counter Logic Gaming. They are also no strangers to other global teams, such as Cloud9 and TSM, who both fell before Wolves in 2015 IEM Katowice. Now they are focused to leave their mark in Worlds, which they surely will.
COACH: Ju Chih “Warhorse” Chen
SK Telecom T1
Team everyone knows of, and for a good reason. They are known to be one of (if not the) best team in the world at the moment. They have got 2 titles in World Championship (2013,2015) and are always one of the strongest candidates to repeat their success. After their dominance in 2015, where they have been almost unbeatable, they have had not so good start of this season, until they showed what can they do in IEM Katowice, where they went to be unbeaten. It was surprising they failed to reach the finals in LCK 2016 Summer split, but despite their dissapointing finish in Summer Split they remain one of the best teams in the world.
COACH: Jeonggyun “kkOma” Kim
I May
The team was founded as second team for Edward Gaming. Despite only being 2nd team, they have come a long way and are now competing on Wold level. They were underdogs for a while, with critics and many other people saying they will never be able to compete on the highest level. And now look at them. This October will be time for them to try out on highest level there is and prove everyone who doubted in the wrong.
COACH: Daeyoung “Kezman” Son
Cloud9
Another strong team, that has suffered a heartbreaking defeat against TSM in NA LCS Summer Finals. The team got back up and fought through the Regional Qualifiers to earn the last spot at the Worlds to represent NA. Cloud9 seems a bit inconsistent. Sometimes they seem to lack synergy, other times they seem unstoppable. If they can show their true colours in the Worlds, they will be a force to be reckon with.
COACH: Han-gyu “Reapered” Bok
GROUP C
Edward Gaming
Well known Chinese squad, who has been introduced to professional League of Legends world in the fall of 2013. They have been decent in their domestic league, finishing 1st in 2014 and 2016 LPL Summer Split. They can also be proud of beating SKT T1 in 2015 Mid-Season Invitational, thus getting 1st place.
They are a good team nonetheless, but they still failed to achieve anything remarkable on World scale. Of course as an team they will strive to finish 1st and despite not being known as “one of the strong favourites” they should not be underestimated.
COACH: Xing “Aaron” Ji
ahq e-Sports Club
One of the top LoL teams in Taiwan, who has been battling it out for the Regional title in Taiwan with Taipei Assassins for a while now. With many titles on their record, they are now striving to be the best in the world, and they will have a chance to do so in the upcoming World Championship. Will they be the second team from Taiwan to win Worlds (after Taipei Assassins) is yet to be seen.
COACH: Shang Ching “Greentea” Tsai
H2K
H2K has had a great debut in EU LCS with 12W-6L record over the season, thus getting 3rd place. They have had a strong season following the debut, finishing at 3rd place once again in 2015.
During 2016 Summer Split they have performed pretty good, despite loosing the 3rd place finish to Fnatic. Luckily H2K qualified for Worlds with Championship points. They are entering the Worlds as underdogs, but they just might surprise us all.
COACH: Neil “Pr0lly” Hammad
INTZ E-sports
A very young squad, that has been in competitive scene since 2015. They did not achieve much success, until they signed jungler “Revolta” who has brought them Summoner Split champions title. They cane in Brazilian competitive world from nowhere, and were known for their aggressive play style, until meta changes forced them to adopt a slower approach. Despite losing their “trade mark” of being a aggressive team, they can still say their team work is very good. This World Championship will be the first one for this team and they will want to prove themselves.
COACH: Alexander “Abaxial” Haibel
GROUP D
TSM
NA LCS Spring Split Finals are going to be in TSM’s minds for a while, as they were destroyed by Counter Logic Gaming, but got right back up and are doing pretty well. They have added rookie VIncent “Biofrost” Wang, who plays support in the Summer and are holding a 17-1 record in the regular season since then.
Winning nearly every match has come a habit for TSM, but they have not faced a “real threat”. Now it will be the time to test out the strengthened roster in World Championship, and due to them being the top team in their region we can imagine there is a lot of pressure on them. it’s up to them to make the fans and their region proud.
COACH: Parth “Parthenaan” Naidu
Royal Never Give Up
Known as one of the best team from China in recent years, with multiple 1st place finishes in LPL and great performance in 2016 Mid-Season Invitational, where they reached the knockout stage. Well it’s obvious they will have great achievements, when they boast some of the best players in China with a lot of experience and talent. They are one of the teams we can expect to perform superbly and can expect some great things from them.
COACH: Sangcheol “Fly” Kim
Samsung Galaxy
This team was originally made of 2 teams; Samsung Blue and Samsung White. AFter KeSPA prohibited one organisation fielding multiple rosters, Samsung had to merge both lineups and with that came Samsung Galaxy. After much change to the roster, they finally assembled their strongest team to date. As the team continues to grow they are becoming one of the best teams in the world, which is clearly seen in their performances. The question still remains; can they surprise us again? Well I have just something to say about that; “Watch out for them”.
COACH: Woobum “Edgar” Choi
Splyce
Formerly Team Dignitas made their debut in 2016 Spring Split. They had to fight their way through the Summer Promotion Tournament where they beat Giants Gaming to get their ticket to EU LCS. During Summer Split they achieved 2nd place, which is a huge step up from their near relegation in Spring. Now full of confidence, they are heading into World Championship, to show the World that they belong here and the performance in the Spring was only a slip up.
COACH: Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi
These are all the groups and the teams that we will see compete for the title. Looking at the teams present at this year’s Worlds I can say without a doubt it will be a interesting run for the Cup. If you are a e-Sport fan you should not miss this pinnacle of League of Legends competitive scene. If you are also a bettor and want to bet on this event, stay tuned on betting-previews.com, where we will provide tips for the upcoming matches.
