Riot Games has confirmed that the 2020 League of Legends World Championship will still be taking be place after recent concerns, sharing more details on the massive end-of-season event’s location, format, schedule, teams, and more.
The World Championship or “Worlds” is League of Legends’ most prestigious tournament, as top teams from each region gather together annually in hopes of lifting the Summoner’s Cup.
Although there were concerns for Worlds 2020, after the cancellation of the Mid-Season Invitational, Riot has now shared an update with League fans and revealed the event is still scheduled for China.
LoL Worlds 2020 location
While China is still going to host the 2020 World Championship, each stage of the competition will no longer be held in different cities.
Instead, the LoL esports tournament will exclusively take place in Shanghai, with the finals at the new Pudong Soccer Stadium.
“Hosting the event in a single city will reduce travel throughout the tournament and give us the ability to more closely control the show environment,” Riot explained in their latest blog post.
It is still unclear if fans will be able to attend the event but Riot has confirmed that they will still be looking to improve on the “virtual fan experience” for 2020.
“From the Elder Dragon in 2017 to last year’s Holonet technology with True Damage, we’ve always tried to innovate on the viewer experience and we are incredibly excited for this year’s show,” they added.
When does League Worlds 2020 start?
Worlds 2020 will kick-off on September 25, bringing fans over a month of top tier League of Legends action before coming to a close on October 31 with the grand finals.
Riot also announced some changes for Worlds in the following years. They revealed that it would be returning to China for a full tour “as originally intended” in 2021, and pushing back North America’s chance to host until 2022.
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Along with the update, the devs also released a teaser trailer for the upcoming event:
LoL Worlds Format change
Due to Vietnamese teams dropping out, only 22 teams will participate, rather than the original 24. To accommodate this change, the play-in stage has been reduced to 10 teams, instead of 12.
These 10 teams will play in two groups of five, with the top team advancing to groups and the bottom eliminated. Third and Fourth in each group will play a decider, with the winner facing the Second-placed team in the group. The winner of that match will also advance to the group stage of Worlds.
To balance the number of teams, it was decided that the third seed from the LCK would automatically advance to the group stage.
All qualified teams for Worlds 2020
As we get closer to the final event of the year, regional playoffs are underway and teams are starting to secure their spots for Worlds 2020.
Following the cancelation of the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational, it was revealed that even more slots were up for grabs, with Regions like Europe now receiving four slots instead of three.
As many of these playoffs are still ongoing, there are still some more teams expected to qualify for Worlds 2020. Here are all of the teams that have qualified for the 2020 League of Legends World Championship so far.
Major Regions
LCS (North America)
- TSM (1st seed)
- FlyQuest (2nd seed)
- Team Liquid (3rd seed)
LEC (Europe)
- G2 Esports (1st seed)
- Fnatic (2nd seed)
- Rogue (3rd seed)
- MAD Lions (4th seed)
LPL (China)
- Top Esports (1st seed)
- JD Gaming (2nd seed)
- Suning (3rd seed)
- LGD Gaming (4th seed)
LCK (South Korea)
- Damwon Gaming (1st seed)
- DRX (2nd seed)
- Gen.G (3rd seed)
Minor Regions
VCS (Vietnam)
All Vietnamese teams have pulled out of Worlds 2020, citing issues with returning from China due to the global health crisis. Their two seeds will be forfeited.
LLA (Latin America)
- Rainbow7
PCS (TW/HK/MC/SEA)
- Machi Esports (1st seed)
- PSG Talon (2nd seed)
OPL (Oceania)
- Legacy Esports
CBLOL (Brazil)
- INTZ
LCL (Russia)
- Unicorns of Love
LJL (Japan)
- V3 Esports
TCL (Turkey)
- Papara SuperMassive