Road to Worlds 2022: Sixteen Teams Seek Glory on the Group Stage

League of Legends Worlds 2022 has already showcased exciting gameplay, unique champion picks, and exhilarating matchups in the Play-in stage. A total of four teams have emerged victorious from the opening stage and have joined the other twelve teams who auto-qualified for Groups. As the Worlds 2022 Group Stage kicks off on 7th October, 16 teams are in contention for the trophy and are gearing up to make and break narratives. It is very clear that the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) and the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) have formed a duopoly in the international esports scene, winning every single World Championship since 2013.

As Worlds 2022 Groups starts, the biggest question that fans have on their mind is whether this domination by the Chinese and the Korean teams will come to an end this time around. Apart from the four teams from LPL and LCK each, we have teams from the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), and also one team representing the Pacific Championship Series (PCS), and one from the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS).

Let us take a closer look at the four groups in the main event of Worlds 2022, which is happening at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Worlds 2017 déjà vu for Group A

The teams that were seeded into Worlds 2022 Group A are:

• Cloud9

• T1

• EDward Gaming

• Fnatic

Those who have been following the esports scene of League of Legends will immediately realize that in 2017, three of these four teams were grouped together and the result was far from exciting for Chinese fans as EDG was eliminated by Cloud9.

Coming into Worlds 2022, Cloud9 won the LCS Summer Playoffs, whereas T1 placed second after faltering to GEN.G in the LCK Summer Final. On the other hand, the European squad of Fnatic just battled through the Play-in stage to make it to New York. EDG, on the other hand, had to win its ticket to Worlds via the LPL Regional Finals. Fnatic and Cloud9 will be going up against two former World Championship-winning teams, making Group A more interesting.

Group B is the group of death

Group B features an array of top teams including LPL’s JD Gaming, Europe’s G2 Esports, Damwon Kia representing Korea, and lastly, Evil Geniuses, the only North American team in the history of international League of Legends esports to have defeated a European team in a best-of series. Before the group draw, fans would have blindly picked JDG, Damwon Kia, and G2 Esports to easily make it to the Knockouts but given the scenario, one of these teams will not see the light of day in the quarterfinals.

G2 Esports lost to Rogue in the LEC Summer Final, a rematch of the Spring final and it looked considerably shaky against the men in blue this time around. For Evil Geniuses, this group will be yet another obstacle to conquer and it will take this up as an opportunity to make history.

Group C is the group of life

The following are the teams that are in Group C:

• DRX

• GAM Esports

• Rogue

• Top Esports

Top Esports, on paper, is one of the strongest teams at Worlds 2022 and is a favorite to win the championship this time around. However, the team had near-misses in the LPL Summer split and it lost to JDG twice in the playoffs. Talking about the LCK seed in Group C, DRX won its Worlds spot via the LCK Regional Finals. These two teams looking fairly shaky gives Rogue a window of opportunity to rise to the top. The European team managed to finally win a split in the LEC and it took down G2 Esports in a dominant fashion. Lastly, GAM Esports will also look forward to changing the narrative around teams from minor regions as it gears up to take on its opponents.

Group D could be dominated by the Eastern teams

With GEN.G and RNG seeded alongside CTBC Flying Oyster and 100 Thieves, one can safely assume that both the Eastern teams will make it to the knockouts without a hitch. However, 100 Thieves can potentially battle RNG for the second place in the group, given that many people are expecting GEN.G to go 6-0 in the group stage. CTBC Flying Oyster will expect to take one of two games away from the other teams and rain on their plans.

Stay updated with the tournament by heading on to Worlds 2022 Group Stage: Teams, Groups, Schedule & More.