What to expect at the #LOLWorldChampionship 2019
Since October 2 and until November 10, the League of Legends World Championship has been taking place in various cities. Find out what to expect.
League of Legends 2019 World Championship
Not only the gamers themselves, but also all those who like to place bets on League of Legends, probably couldn’t wait for the World Championship to finally start again. 24 teams will fight for glory and honor in the coming weeks, but only one of these teams will be crowned world champion by mid-November. The road to the final is still a very long one. First of all, a dozen teams are fighting for the four remaining places in the main tournament. The other twelve teams have already qualified directly in advance for the group stage, which will take place in Berlin.
Who are the favorites?
Those who like to bet on eSports should inform themselves in detail in advance. Otherwise, especially in League of Legends, you risk investing your money in candidates who ultimately have no chance at all in the tournament. A good bet would be the defending champion Invictus Gaming from China, which is likely to be one of the favorites again this year. China is again strongly represented, this time with three teams in the main field. Royal Never Give Up, also a Chinese representation, should not be underestimated either, as was the case at some of the past League of Legends World Championships.
A League of Legends World Championship takes a long time
Once you get a feel for League of Legends as a sport, you’ll also have no trouble placing bets on the hopefully future winners. Anyone who feels like it can place eSports bets at betway.com. This applies to both the overall winners and the winners of the respective matches. While simple “best of 1” rounds are still played in the preliminary round, the so-called “play-in”, from the knockout round onwards each match is played in “best of 5” mode, in which a team has to win three times to move on to the next round of the tournament. This gives fans plenty of opportunities to place bets.
The play-in will take place in Berlin at the LEC Studio until October 8. Four teams will qualify there for the main event, whose group stage will also be held in Berlin, but at the Verti Music Hall. These four teams will each be drawn individually into one of the four groups in which the other three participants have already been determined for some time. The eight best teams will qualify for the quarterfinals, which, like the semifinals in Madrid, will be held at the Palacio Vistalegre. The winners of the two semifinals will finally meet in Paris Bercy on November 10 at the AccorHotels Arena, the former “Palais Omnisports”.
Details on the mode
Two teams from each of the four groups of four teams will qualify for the quarterfinals. For the qualifiers from the play-in there should not be too many disadvantages, because after all they can already warm up for it in the competition mode, which they hope to continue doing for weeks afterwards. In the past, it has certainly happened that a team was able to play its way first through the play-ins and then through the group stage and quarterfinals to the semifinals. Team G2, which achieved this feat last year, is one of the favorites again this year after good results.
While the group stage may seem like a necessary formality for some of the favored teams, especially those from China, this stage should definitely not be underestimated. Those who have already played themselves into good shape have a good chance of avoiding a favorite in the further course of the tournament thanks to a favorable placement in the group stage. The group winners will each play a runner-up in the quarterfinals. It will be interesting to see, for example, who will prevail in the strong group C with SK Telekom 1, Royal Never Give Up, the European hope Fnatic and a qualifier from the play-in.
Let’s go
The first day of the play-ins already brought a big surprise. Clutch Gaming (CG) surprisingly lost the first game against Unicorns of Love (UoL). Quite obviously CG fell back into the bad form from the spring, while UoL managed to lure their opponent into a trap from which the latter didn’t know how to escape. This victory should have put UoL in an even clearer favorite role for their next encounter against MAMMOTH. Thus, it is already apparent early on that Unicorns of Love could grab one of the four qualifying spots up for grabs for the main tournament.
League of Legends World Championship – the biggest event of the year.
Of course, it’s still way too early to guess what will probably be the lasting story from this year’s LoL World Championship. Every World Championship writes its own history – and not just in eSports. So UoL’s top effort against CG could turn out to be a flash in the pan in the very next match, or it could be the beginning of a success story that might go even further this time than last year’s G2 eSports. In any case, it will be interesting to see how the three-time former world champion SK Telekom 1 from the eSports stronghold of South Korea will do. This team is on the road with an almost completely new lineup.
The favorites at the League of Legends World Championships almost traditionally come from Asia. So it’s hardly surprising that South Korea, which probably has the highest density of eSports players in the world, is a favorite team. But the Chinese should not be ignored either. In the play-in round, a number of teams from Latin America are currently competing with other Asians for the four places in the main field that are still up for grabs. From a German point of view, it is worth watching Team Royal Youth from Turkey at the play-ins in the Berlin LEC Studio, as this team is the only player from Germany at this year’s World Championships.
These dates should be remembered
To make sure that you don’t miss a decisive game, it is of course worth making a note of the relevant dates. The play-in phase lasts until October 8. After a three-day break, the teams that have qualified so far will move from the LEC Studio to the Verti Music Hall, where the group stage will be held. This will last from October 12 to 20, with a one-day break on October 16. The semi-finals and quarter-finals will be held in Madrid on October 26/27 and November 2-3, and the grand final will take place on November 10 in Paris, where more than 10,000 fans will be seated in the AccorHotels Arena.
