Guide to the League of Legends 2018 World Championship

The largest League of Legends event of the year is only a few days away and with it, comes the conclusion of the competitive season for 2018.

Tournament Format

The League of Legends Championship tournament lasts for an entire month and features three different stages. It starts on 1 October and will run until 3 November.

Beginning with the Play-Ins, the initial stage of the competition will be played in Seoul. It comes in two rounds – the Group Round and the Knockout Round. The Group Round will feature 12 different teams, which will be separated into four groups of three. This stage will be a Double Round Robin, where each team will play against the other twice, and all matches will be best-of-one. The two best performing teams of each group will advance to the Knockout Round.

The Play-In Knockout Round will see eight teams participate for a spot at the Main Event in best-of-five matches. From the eight teams, only four will continue to the next stage.

The Group Stage will be played in Busan and will feature the four winners of the Play-In and twelve teams seeded from various major tournaments. The sixteen will be divided into four groups of four, with a single Play-In team in each group. This stage will also utilize the Double Round Robin format and all games will be best-of-one. The top two teams of each group will move on the to Finals.

The Knockout Stage (Finals) will come in three different rounds – Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and Grand Finals. The Quarter-Finals will be played in Busan, while the Semi-Finals will take place in Gwangju. The Grand Finals event will unfold in Incheon. Unlike the previous two stages, the Knockout Stage will use Single Elimination and all matches will be best-of-five.

Participating Teams and Groups

During the World Championship, 24 teams will contend for the prestigious first place. Contenders come from all over the globe and have gone through a lot to come to this point.

Play-In Teams

As mentioned previously, the Play-In teams will have to go through an extra stage in order to reach the top and compete in the Main Event. There are twelve of them and they are sorted in the following groups:

Group Stage Groups and Teams

The Group Stage teams have been directly invited to the Group Stage as result of competing in top-tier tournaments previously in the year. There are twelve of them and they are separated into the following groups: