Worlds 2019 play ins build up

LoL Worlds 2019 Play in

Good day ladies and gents, A few hours ago the groups of the League of Legends world championship have been announced. The world championship will consist of 24 teams who have earned their spot through their regional quallifiers. All regions have representatives they’re sending to worlds. These 24 teams will see 12 teams placed automatically in the Main Event and the remaining 12 teams will duke it out in play ins for the final 4 spots in the Main Event. Today I will be talking about the play in stage.

The play in stage:

The play in stage consists of 12 teams. -The third seed of the LEC, LCS, LCK and LMS -The second seed of the VCS -The champions of the LCL, TCL, LJL, LLA, CBLOL, OPL and the LST

All teams were first divided into pools. Pool 1: Clutch Gaming, Splyce, Hongkong attitude and DAMWON Gaming Pool 2: Unicorns of Love, Isurus Gaming, Lowkey Esports and Royal Youth Pool 3: Mammoth, Dentonation FM, Mega and Flamengo eSports

A team will be selected from each pool in order to get 4 pools who will duke it out in a double round robin. After today’s draw the groups look as followed:

Group A: -Clutch Gaming (LCS) -Unicorns of Love (LCL) -MAMMOTH (OPL)

Group B: -Splyce (LEC) -Isurus Gaming (LLA) -Dentonation FM (LJL)

Group C: -Hongkong attitude (LMS) -Lowkey Esports (VCS) -Mega (LST)

Group D: -DAMWON Gaming (LCK) -Royal Youth (TCL) -Flamengo eSports (CBLOL)

After the double round robin the numbers 1 and two will advance to a single BO5 match against another team. A number 1 team will always face a number two team and vice verca. Royal Youth and Flamengo eSports can rejoice that they’re in the group with DAMWON gaming so they can avoid facing them in a BO5. Although might be a rookie team on the international stage, all odds point towards them sweeping all opponents they face in the Play in stage.

Clutch Gaming are the clear favorites in Group A and are expected to book their ticket into the main event aswell. Their opponents did have quite a few shaky moments on their way of getting to worlds. Mammoth has seemed strong during their BO5 in the Split 2 playoffs in the OPL sweeping their opponents 3-0 on both occasions, however I doubt their roster and macro play are enough to defeat the likes of Clutch. The Unicorns have also not really looked well, they can be glad about the fact that they haven’t been slotted against a European team as the LEC teams are well known for their heavy punishment game and as was seen in the finals of the LCL regularly. This allows their opponents to create oppertunities to come back.

As for group B all odds points towards the LEC’s third seed Splyce taking first place in the group. Having missed their chance to get into Worlds directly duet o a 3-0 loss against Fnatic in the gauntlet final, Splyce will look towards getting a spot into worlds through play ins. Their opposition is not something you can just write off aswell. Isurus Gaming and Detonation FM are well respected teams within their respective regions and will be looking to make their worlds main stage debut. Isurus has been the dominant factor in the LLA playoffs this season although finishing 4th in the LLA opening they climbed their way through the playoffs gauntlet to beat Rainbow 7 with a 3-1 game score. After failing to quallify for MSI through the wildcard they are now hunting for a spot in worlds again after winning the closing playoffs final with a 3-0 scoreline against All Knights. They are surely a contender that can cause some upsets. Onto the LJL representative Dentonation FM. Detonation FM has always been the strongest team within the LJL, but untill last year worlds never quallified for an international event due to losing out on the final BO5. Detonation FM will be looking forward to getting another shot after losing out to EDG last year. The only roster change they’ve undergone at the end of the season is their Support. viviD left the team and has been replaced by Gaeng. viviD left to join V3 Esports, but in his new team ended up losing to his old team with a 3-1 scoreline.

Group C is a very interesting one since it hosts a team from the falling region (LMS) and the rising region (VCS). These two regions althouguh technically not rivals are viewed as rivals for their regions seedings on the world stage. The performances that the VCS teams have been putting in are closely on par with the LMS and if this trend continues we might soon see a shift of power between the two regions. In group C all the representatives are the LMS’s third seed Hong Kong Attitude, The VCS’s second seed Lowkey Esports and the LST’s first seed MEGA. Although having run the LST playoffs without dropping a single game MEGA are still viewed as the underdogs duet o the prestige the VCS and LMS have been accumilating over the course of the previous seasons. Lowkey finished third in the VCS regular season and were slotted against eventual winners GAM in the playoffs to whom they lost 3-0. After that the team got dropped into the loser’s bracket to obtain the second seed that the VCS had. They pretty much whiped the floor with Dashing Buffalo, formerly known as Phong Vu Buffalo, and went into the finals of the losers bracket against Team Flash whom they beat 3-1 in a pretty intense series. Last but not least we have the slight favorites to win the group, Hongkong Attitude. Finishing third in the regular season Hongkong Attitude placed themselves in the quarter finals of playoffs where they beat MAD team 3-1, but after an intense match in the semi finals they lost 3-2 to AHQ e-sports club. They also failed to qualify on the basis of championship points, because of their 5th place finish and spring. There was one more chance to obtain their spot for the world championship this being the regional quallifiers. Hongkong Attitude went like a hot knife through a pile of butter and absolutely smashed Flash Wolves and G-Rex to claim the LMS’s third seed. Most players from these squads haven’t been on a worlds stage yet and are definently looking forward to making their mark on the international stage.

Finally we have group D and what can we say… Good luck to Royal Youth and Flamengo eSports, because there is absolutely no way you will beat DAMWON Gaming. Although being the thid seed of the LCK, DAMWON is by far the favorite and the strongest team to make it through playoffs. Compared to all top laners with the exception of CG’s Huni, there’ll be no one who can match up against Nuguri and don’t forget about the midlaner who has started to show up for his team Showmaker. DAMWON gaming is a force to be reckoned with. Playing in the play in stage can also be very beneficial for a team, since it allows you to get more time in against a meta composition so you’ll be well trained for the time you arrive for the Main Event of worlds. Still, you can’t say they have won till they’ve actually beaten their opponents. Royal Youth is the representative of the TCL and managed to beat the favorites SuperMassive. After the winter split Royal Youth lost their worlds veterans GBM and Dumbledoge. They managed to bounce back though with Tolerant joining as their new support and cyeol their new mid laner, they are massively underrated, but their competition is also no to shabby. Finally for the last play in team we have Flamengo eSports, the CBLOL representatives. This Brazilian powerhouse didn’t swap any of it’s players halfway through the season after finishing first in Split 1. After having that devastating 3-2 loss against INTZ e-sports in the Split 1 finals they failed to qualify for the MSI quallifiers. Scarred, but not broken they bounced back and took first place in Split 2 aswell and after beating Uppercut esports in the semi finals they met INTZ e-sports in the finals again. This time the results would be vice versa. Flamengo beat INTZ 3-2 to claim their first playoffs win and booked their ticket to the worlds play in stage. Having CBLOL’s most well-known player BRTT at their side Flamengo hopes to take either first or second place in the group to enter the BO5 and from there on get in to the Main Event, but just like Royal Youth they have their work cut out for them if they want to finish first, because DAMWON is based on skill and strategy the strongest opponent you could face in the Play in stage.

My predictions for the Play in groups are:

Group A: 1st Clutch Gaming (3-1), 2nd Unicorns of Love (2-2) 3rd MAMMOTH (1-3)

Group B: 1st Splyce (4-0) 2nd Detonation FM (2-2) 3rd Isurus Gaming (0-4)

Group C: 1st Lowkey Esports (3-1 TW*) 2nd Hongkong Attitude (3-1 TL*²) 3rd MEGA (0-4)

Group D: 1st Damwon Gaming (4-0) 2nd Flamengo eSports (1-3 TW*) 3rd Royal Youth (1-3 TL*²)

TW* = Tiebreaker Win TL*² = Tiebreaker Loss

I will not make any predictions as to whom of the play in teams will advance towards the Main Event since the matchups have not yet been decided and the playstyle of some different teams can make the difference in the end result of the Best of 5 matches.

I hope you learned something from this post and are getting more excited for the world championship, because we definently are!

See you around summoners, let's meet on the Rift! Let's moohve it