An Idea to Restructure the Play-in Stage for the LoL World Championship (Long Post)
This year, RIOT is using a different structure for the World's tournament format. For a moment, let me look back on the Old Format used for Season 6.
This post is primarily about qualifying for the Group Stages
Korea (LCK), China (LPL), North America (NALCS), and Europe (EULCS) Each receive 3 seeds, automatically in the Group Stage. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (LMS) receives 2 seeds automatically in the Group Stage. Each of the 8 'Wildcard' (minor) regions has 1 team each in the "Wildcard Qualifier Tournament," Where 2 teams represent the 'Wildcard' regions with the last 2 spots in the Group Stage.
- Southeast Asia (GPL)
- Brazil (CBLoL)
- Northern Latin America (LAN)
- Southern Latin America (LAS)
- Japan (LJL)
- Turkey (TCL)
- CIS/Russia (LCL)
- Oceanic (OPL)
This format was okay, but clearly doesn't give much opportunity to the 8 minor regions. For Season 7, it will be fairly different.
LCK, LPL, NALCS, EULCS, and LMS all receive 2 teams automatically in the Group Stage, as well as each having a 3rd seed in the Play-in Stage.
The winner of MSI will receive one team in the Group Stage automatically. This means a minor region can get their representative at Worlds into Groups instantly IF their region won at MSI. This also means if a major region wins at MSI, they get their 3rd seed into Groups automatically. This is the circumstance for this year, as SKT T1 won at MSI, meaning all three LCK teams are in Groups for Season 7.
The remaining 14 teams play in the Play-in Stage, where the final 5 Group Stage spots will be determined.
This seems like a much better opportunity at first, there's 5 spots available for minor region teams to take up and prove themselves. However, if the past holds true, then the 3rd seed from the Major regions should make it through, meaning there's likely only going to be 1 or 2 minor region representatives in Groups, maybe 3. This almost says that RIOT themselves don't think the minor regions can make it through the Play-in Stage, as all 8 teams from minor regions are considered 'Wildcard' and are therefore the same region. Since the decision for groups at Worlds is that "no two teams of the same region can be in the same group," RIOT may not actually think the minor region reps can make a big enough impact in the Play-in Stage, therefore not getting enough teams for that Region rule to matter for 'Wildcard' teams.
I recently had an idea on how it could be restructured to give ample opportunity to the minor regions while still making MSI results affect Worlds.
Every one of the 13 regions (5 major, 8 minor) receive 2 spots for their teams to play, for a total of 26 teams. Every region that had a team compete at the main MSI event (6 total regions) has their 1st seed team automatically put through to the Group Stage. The team that won the MSI finals gets their second seed into the Group Stage automatically. 7 teams across 6 different regions are guaranteed a team in Groups.
The remaining 7 1st Seed teams and 12 2nd Seed teams (19 teams total) compete in a Play-in Stage to decide the remaining 9 Group Stage spots.
I personally think this is the best structure of the Play-in Stage, as it gives opportunities to each of the minor regions to prove themselves. Also, this way, Even if all of the Major region participants make it to the Group Stage, there are still 6 spots for minor region competitors. This also gives logic to the "No two teams from the same region can be in the same group" as there aren't three teams from each region. At most, there are 2, and each of the minor regions can have their own classification as their own region, instead of being thrown into the 'Wildcard' smorgasbord.
I also believe, for drawing Groups in the Group Stage, it shouldn't be split into Pool 1, 2, and 3, but instead into Pool 1 and 2. Pool 1 consists of all the 1st Seed teams, and Pool 2 consists of all the 2nd seed teams.
Thank you for reading. I know my idea has some wonky numbers, but I think they allow more region diversity and gives the minor regions an opportunity to strut their stuff. Do you have any ideas? Please, I'd love to read them in the comments below.