League of Legends pros react to Worlds group draw

League of Legends pro players have reacted to the groups being drawn for the 2019 World Championship.

Worlds is due to kick off on October 2, and teams now know who they’ll be facing in the first stage of their campaign, as the groups for both the Play-In and the main event Group Stage were decided by a live draw on September 23.

After learning who they’ll be fighting for a chance to reach the playoffs – and how their draw might affect their chances of doing so – many players took to Twitter to share their first thoughts.

24 teams will compete for the chance to lift the Summoner’s Cup.

G2 Esports are considered among the favorites for the whole event, having won both domestic splits in impressive fashion and claimed this year’s Mid-Season Invitational trophy. It looks like the team will have to prove themselves from the start, however, as their group already features tough competition in the form of LCK runners-up Griffin and NA second seed Cloud9.

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Despite what could be seen as a difficult draw, it seems G2 top-laner Martin ‘Wunder’ Nordahl Hansen isn’t concerned, stating that he doesn’t even need to practice for the group stage, and can instead spend his time playing WoW Classic.

G2 jungler Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski wasn’t quite so assured in his own take, referencing Cloud9’s historic tendency to reach playoffs no matter the probability on paper, and Griffin’s prowess outside of best-of-fives.

Meanwhile, G2 AD Carry Luka ‘Perkz’ Perković actually had some praise for Fnatic, who were drawn into what has been dubbed the “group of death”, also featuring SK Telecom T1 and Royal Never Give Up.

For Cloud9’s part, it seems the team is as confident as ever in their ability to escape the group, with both Dennis ‘Svenskeren’ Johnsen and Yasin ‘Nisqy’ Dinçer seemingly happy with the draw.

Team Liquid’s Yiliang ‘Doubelift’ Peng was clearly pleased with his own squad’s draw. Having never made it to the playoff stage of the tournament, despite having attended almost every year and frequently as part of North America’s top seed, it seems he’s confident that this will be the tournament he finally breaks that record.

Teammate Nikolaj ‘Jensen’ Jensen – who has a much better Worlds record, reaching the playoffs in three consecutive years and peaking in 2018 with a top-four finish – seems to share Doublelift’s confidence.

While most of the tweets were clearly made in jest, fans looking to see players’ real reactions to the group draw are in luck, as several teams uploaded videos of their players watching the group draw in real time.

Not only does each give an insight into how the teams feel about their own group, but the players also share some immediate reactions to the other groups for the event.

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Team Liquid were happy with their own draw, celebrating almost as soon as AHQ was placed into Group D – although they did try to restrain themselves after remembering the famous TSM group draw celebration in 2016, which Doublelift was part of, before the team ultimately failed to advance.

On the other side, Fnatic were much less pleased to be handed what looks like the clear toughest group on paper.

G2 Esports also drew a tough group, but the team didn’t seem particularly phased by their draw.

Cloud9, on the other hand, were clearly hoping not to be drawn against G2 and Griffin, although when the pick came through it didn’t seem to dampen their spirits too much.

The 2019 League of Legends World Championship will take place from October 2 to November 10, although the main event Group Stage will kick off on October 12.