World Championship 2014 Preliminary Schedule

Riot·Aug 5, 2014·3 votes·20,596 views

It’s getting closer and closer to the ultimate showdown in Seoul on October 19th where we’ll crown the League of Legends World Champions 2014. As teams from around the world battle to come out on top in their regional leagues, here’s a glimpse at the group stages, quarter-final and semi-final that are going to take us towards the final showdown at Sangam Stadium. First of all, here’s a quick guide to how this will work. Each of the 16 qualifying teams for Worlds will be drawn into one of four groups (four teams per each group). Two out of the four groups will play the entirety of their group stage games in Taiwan, and the other two groups will play the entirety of their group stage games in Singapore. During the group stage, each team will play every other team twice (once on blue side, once on purple) - meaning that each team plays six games and there are 24 games per location. For more information on how this will all play out, check out our Worlds rulebook - and look out for more information on lolesports.com within the next few weeks. Calendars at the ready - here are the dates and times for the upcoming stages.

GROUP STAGE ONE: September 18 - 21
Taipei, Taiwan

Local time: 5pm - 11pm

PDT: 2am - 8am

CEST: 11am - 5pm

KST: 6pm - 12am

GROUP STAGE TWO: September 25 - 28
Singapore, Singapore

Sept 25 - 26	Sept 27 - 28
Local time: 5pm - 11pm	Local time: 2pm - 8pm
PDT: 2am - 8am	PDT: 11pm - 5am
CEST: 11am - 5pm	CEST: 8am - 2pm
KST: 6pm - 12am	KST: 3pm - 9pm

QUARTERFINALS: October 3-6
Busan, Korea

October 3	October 4-5	October 6
Local time: 5pm - 10pm	Local time: 2pm - 7pm	Local time: 5pm - 10pm
PDT: 1am - 6am	PDT: 10pm - 3am	PDT: 1am - 6am
CEST: 10am - 3pm	CEST: 7am - 12pm	CEST: 10am - 3pm

SEMIFINALS: October 11-12
Seoul, Korea

Local time - 5pm - 10pm

PDT - 1am - 6am

CEST - 10am - 3pm

FINALS: October 19
Seoul, Korea

Local time - 4pm - 9pm (3:30pm Opening Ceremony)

PDT - 12am - 5am (11:30pm Opening Ceremony)

CEST - 9am - 2pm (8:30am Opening Ceremony)

Tickets will be on sale for all of the stops very shortly, so check back to lolesports.com to secure your spot for the upcoming stages!

52 Comments

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20149 votes

Nice to have the schedule out, but i guess it means it´ll be a single elemination tournament again?

I feel that´s really a bad way to do an important tournament like Worlds. Double elemination (->Upper+Lower-Bracket) is a much better way to make sure the teams in the final are the two best teams of the Tournament in the end. The current OGN-Champions Summer just is a brilliant example of how very strong teams can go out early just because they are in the wrong Bracket, while much weaker Teams make it to Semis/Finals (SKT K got out in quarters while S made it to 3rd place match...and I doubt anyone in their right mind would believe S is stronger than K). Or maybe have a look at TI4...Vici went out there in the Upper bracket 1st round vs the coming Champions, just to fight all the way through the Lower-brackets and reach the Finals. In a Single-elemination they would have been tied for last, making a difference of almost half a million Dollars for them, just because of the seating. So luck of the Draw will play a huge role again in Worlds S4, which is kind of a shame.

Pros of Having Upper-/Lower-Bracket:

Strong Teams that get eliminated early because they are matched against the up and coming World Champion get a 2nd Chance to make it to the Final and strike back, so luck of the draw doesn´t play such an important role for a Team to make it to the Finals ->It´s fairer
It provides more Drama, due to the comebacks of teams in the Lower-bracket -> more entertainment
more Games to watch

Cons:

more Games to play

Edit: the currently running 3rd place match of OGN Summer is just a very very good example of why single-elemination is a terrible modus for important tournaments. SKT S is very obviously outclassed hard by Samsung White and wouldn´t have managed to get through quarters if they would have been in the other Bracket. So if SKT K and S would have been in each others Brackets it´s fair to assume K would be a finalist now and S would have gone out as 7/8th place...so K would already be qualified for Worlds if they would have had more luck when they drew Brackets. And Luck really should not play such an important factor in these events.

Bro ManiacAug 6, 20145 votes

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SKT KuroNekoAug 6, 20146 votes

by single elimination he means that in Quarter finals, once u lose, youre out. Where as if it was double elim.. you can lose and drop down to lower bracket and climb your way back up to finals in lower bracket.. win it, and then go on to Grand finals. to face off against winner of the Upper bracket.

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20141 votes

exactly that, thanks for the explanation.

As stated above, if Games from Quarter onwards are K.O.-System it really leads to some teams just facing a lot easier opponents (think of last year, facing the GPL-Team #1 in Quarters had been sort of a free-ticket to semis) on their way to the finals than others. If there´s a Lower-Bracket a Team that goes out fairly early vs a really strong opponent can still prove it´s worth and make a comeback to reach the finals anyway.

MenbungAug 6, 20142 votes

ummm maybe i'm dumb... but this can't be THE madlife.. can it?

FNC NickAug 6, 20141 votes

He probably isn't, since Madlife is in the Korean server. He's probably just a fan who was lucky enough to managed to get that name.

Bro ManiacAug 7, 20146 votes

Someone down there already said it's the same system the FIFA world cup is based on, just like most of the biggest sporting events on the planet. Why should esports be any different? Additionally, in a tournament where it is mostly winning the whole thing that matters, I do not really see a point in making a losers' bracket. FIFA is already being critized for having a 3rd place match. If you lose against someone in a Bo5 - which all matches in the knock-out stages are this year, as opposed to last year - then you're worse than your opponent and not the number one team in the world obviously. The point of making it Bo5s is to clearly determine which team is better, so giving them a second chance to beat the same team that advanced does not make a lot of sense. You get more than one chance in a Bo5 - use it!

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20141 votes

They play each other twice during the groupstage, from Quarters onwards however it will be a single elemination tournament unfortunately, just like last year.

Katow JoAug 6, 20142 votes

Bah, in the end, even FIFA adopts the single elimination format, it's more suspenseful forces every team in a do or die situation, much more appropriate for a competition of this scale IMO.

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20141 votes

The thing is...hosting a FIFA-worldcup-game costs a damn lot of money, while having some more games of LoL wouldn´t require that many ressources (and during S2 most tournament actually featured a double-elimination-modus already).

GiiMMiiXAug 6, 20142 votes

It's the same system used by FIFA for the world cup. The largest tournament in the world. So I dont see how this doesn't work???

TrevorghostAug 6, 20147 votes

Every match is in the middle of the night for NA. item 3070 That's fine. I didn't want to watch Worlds anyways.

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20142 votes

There´ll be free VoDs anyway, fortunately time doesn´t play much of a role anymore nowadays if it comes to watching/enjoying events liek that.

Vexen IVAug 6, 20146 votes

It'd make more sense to offer rebroadcasts throughout each day for more viewers instead of forcing people to watch the vods

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20142 votes

Dunno I´m kinda used to watching VoDs, as I always work very late - so I really don´t see a problem there. Though I guess there´s nothing stopping them from rebroadcasting aswell.

Lettuce SammichAug 6, 20142 votes

You dont see a problem in an entire region not being able to view the World Championship live?

Earl EulrichAug 6, 20144 votes

It´s a big world...so it´s pretty natural some part of the world has the games "live" during night-time. No Way to avoid that. And as I said...I´m usually coming home from work between 1 and 3 am in the morning, so I´m very used to rewatch Games and Sport Events later on as VoDs - and i really don´t see a special problem there, you get the Broadcast just like it happened live, in high quality and can even fast forward things if Games don´t interesst you or are sorta boring. And it´s pretty easy to avoid spoilers with the new VoD page on lolesports.

NOOBvk123Aug 6, 20145 votes

Quit complaining , last worlds were in the middle of the night for Europe.....how come you Americans are more important then us?

Vanty LhauAug 6, 20142 votes

And what about world championship season 3 ? Most of the EUW couldn't saw it cause the game was at 2am-4am. And now it's the turn of the poor NA and they are crying ^^ you watch VOds as me did before

TirizzleAug 6, 20141 votes

Or we just won't watch worlds and riot can report shitty viewership numbers. Either way works right?

TosídAug 7, 20141 votes

well there is no point in watching worlds if you will be the first eliminated rigth? just like in every other world championship.

MrMartinWgAug 9, 20141 votes

Typical elitist moron. I'm not complaining about the time for me, but this is not a forum for regional bragging. I live in NA, but I watch more ogn than anything else. Arguing about silly bronze medals is pointless. EU>NA or NA>EU, it doesn't matter; the winner will probably be a samsung team.

Bro ManiacAug 7, 20146 votes

Some people complaining about this schedule are really quite funny. It sounds a little selfish to me that you want RIOT to make a schedule that fits one specific region - mostly NA or EU - every year. Besides the fact that some World Championships have already bin IN the United States, what gives you the right to think that you deserve live games more than people in other regions do? Just FYI: They've had sucky schedules for the last years! It's not like esports is a small thing in Korea- want proof?

Those were OGN HOT 6 Summer Finals 2013. Imagine the WORLD CUP FINALS STADIUM that by the way fits over 60 000 people (not sure if supposed to use period or comma in between). Getting that kind of venue is amazing and I feel like other regions deserved being able to watch matches live at a nice time. There are VODs (in my opinion the same as rebroadcasts, no idea where you see the difference) for everyone and you won't miss a second of the action.

And getting up at an unfortunate time ONCE for finals won't get you fired / make you fail a class / kill you - I hope.

Now I can't think of more arguments to throw at you, so peace out and have fun watching worlds :)

Bro ManiacAug 7, 20143 votes

http://dev.seoulspace.co.kr/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2009-final.jpeg

Link wouldn't show. Here's OGN finals of last year

MrMartinWgAug 9, 20141 votes

I have no problem with watching the games really late or early, but I have a problem with some regions having more time to prep for worlds.

IloqiakAug 6, 20145 votes

It's funny to see that as soon as the games, during worlds, doesn't fit the NA timezone, everyone loses their minds and almost rages about it. When it was in LA I had to stay up most of the night if I wanted to see the games, same as you are this year. My problem now is the games being played in the daytime in Europe. So now i guess I won't be able to see the games because it's during work hours. My point is, stop rage about it. They have put so much work into this, and the only appreciation you give them is: "fuck man now NA have to watch in the night. How can you let a whole region miss the Worlds!!!???" Think about the Asian regions too. They have been in the same situation as you are now in NA

squidbertAug 6, 20141 votes

The Finals were during the day in Asia. And it was very late for me on the east coast of the US. I don't remember exactly, but according to leaguepedia the games started at 11PM local to me. So they lasted well into the night, past 2 for sure.

MenbungAug 6, 20144 votes

Why are people in NA complaining? Most of the matches are during the weekend. yes either in the wee hours of the morning, but minus the friday and thursday games.... Why are you in class? I can't wait for worlds!

Vexen IVAug 6, 20143 votes

Please tell me that they are going to show Rebroadcasts throughout the day the matches are held or they will lose out in a serious amount of viewers in NA

C9 Scott Free Aug 6, 20143 votes

This is the second year in a row you have made world finals a pain for NA. why? :/

GWooKAug 6, 20146 votes

dude last year was in LA...... so what's the problem? I was fine.

panta rheiAug 6, 20145 votes

last year was a pain vor eu not for na >.>

Man Nav PautuAug 6, 20144 votes

haha last year was fun. i remember i was watching the games till 6-7 in the morning :D and sometimes even saw my mom leave to work.

AzhenotAug 6, 20143 votes

Damn i'll have to watch on the twitch app like a ninja during class. :p Akali

Bro ManiacAug 6, 20142 votes

Those were very interesting 34 pages of rules! I think I'll dream of WCE ... WCE ... WCE summoner 3

TosídAug 7, 20142 votes

why are you all NA kids crying like bitches just because its at nigth? its been the same for Europe and Asia the last 2 championships so i dont see a reason to cry. just deal with what the other regions have been dealing with u fat fucks

JenksAug 6, 20141 votes

If I wasn't the kind of guy to stay up until the sun comes up I would have a problem with this schedule

Bro ManiacAug 6, 20141 votes

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AnsemiteAug 6, 20145 votes

Bro, that's always the case somewhere in the world. We can't have the schedule suit us every year or else someone else would have a sucky schedule every year.. Next time it'll be in a different timezone, live with it :)

DracyanAug 6, 20141 votes

At least I can watch the finals LOL

PAPERpopAug 6, 20141 votes

Right when I have classes...

misa jajabinksAug 6, 20141 votes

agreed :(

misa jajabinksAug 6, 20141 votes

Riot, there are not enough teams competing in the worlds. There should be 4 group stages, each with 4 teams, 3 from NA LCS,3 from EU LCS, 3 from CHINA LPL. 3 from KOREA OGN, 2 from GPL southeast Asia and 2 from CBLOL Brazil or other leagues. PLZZZZ! This would be so awesome! Make this happen plz!