League of Legends Worlds 2021 Will Not Feature a Live Audience
Riot Games officially released the format and event details for League of Legends Worlds 2021. The publisher made an official announcement revealing that the event is headed to Reykjavik, Iceland. The city previously hosted the Valorant Masters 2 event and it will be the home to Worlds 2021 at the newly refurbished Hall A at the Laugardalshöll indoor sporting arena. The sporting arena hosted the Mid-Season Invitational recently, with zero COVID-19 cases being reported by players, staff, and partners. However, there will be no live audience for Worlds 2021 and fans will have to catch up on all of the action online.
League of Legends Worlds 2021 format
Worlds will host 22 teams from around the globe facing off across three stages of play: Play-Ins, Groups, and Knockouts. All stages of play will take place in the Laugardalshöll arena in Reykjavik. Riot Games also revealed the official format and schedule of the upcoming event.
Play-Ins Format:
The Play-Ins stage will feature 10 teams:
The first seeded teams from:
1. Brazil’s CBLoL, RED Canids Kalunga
2. Japan’s LJL, DetonatioN FocusMe
3. Oceania’s LCO, PEACE
4. The Commonwealth of Independent States’ LCL, Unicorns of Love
5. Latin America’s LLA, Infinity Esports
6. Turkey’s TCL, Galatasaray Esports
The second seeded teams from:
7. Southeast Asia’s PCS, Beyond Gaming
The third seeded team from:
8. North America’s LCS, Cloud9
The fourth seeded teams from:
9. China’s LPL, LNG Esports
10. Korea’s LCK, Hanwha Life Esports
The ten teams will be divided into groups of five where they will be competing for four available Group Stage berths. Each team will play one game against every other team in their group.
The top team in each group will automatically advance to the Group Stage. Third and fourth-place teams will play a best-of-five, with winners challenging the other group’s second seed for the last two spots.
Group Stage Format
The Group Stage will feature 16 teams including the four Play-In qualifying teams and 12 new competitors:
The top three seeded teams from:
Korea’s LCK (DWG KIA, Gen.G, T1),
China’s LPL (EDward Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, Royal Never Give Up)
Europe’s LEC (MAD Lions, Fnatic, Rogue)
The top two seeded teams from:
North America’s LCS (100 Thieves, Team Liquid)
The top-seeded team from:
Southeast Asia’s PCS (PSG.Talon Esports).
These 16 teams will be split into four groups of four, with each competitor playing against every team in their group twice. The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the Knockout Stage.
Knockout Stage
The remaining eight teams will compete in a best-of-five single elimination bracket, progressing through Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals. At Finals, the last two teams standing will play a best-of-five series – and that winner will be crowned the 2021 League of Legends World Champions.
League of Legends Worlds 2021 schedule
The event will take place from 5th October to 6th November.
Play-Ins: 5th to 9th October.
Groups: 11th-13th October and 15th-18th October
Quarterfinals: 22nd-25th October
Semifinals: 30th-31st October
Finals: 6th November
Matches during Play-Ins and Groups will begin at 11 AM. GMT (4 AM PST, 1 PM CET, 7 PM CST, 8 PM KST).
Starting with Quarterfinals, matches will begin at 12 PM GMT (5 AM PST, 2 PM CET, 8 PM CST, 9 PM KST).
League of Legends Worlds 2021: Where to watch
Players can watch the matches live at:
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/riotgames
Abhimannu is a part of the content team at AFK Gaming and a lifelong obsessive gamer. He currently covers esports titles like VALORANT, CS: GO, Call of Duty, Fortnite, PUBG and more.