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Everything you need to know about the Worlds 2015 Group Stage

Riot·9/14/2015, 5:58:58 PM·1 votes·35,893 views

After duking it out in Playoffs and Regional Qualifiers, the top 16 teams from around the globe are set to compete in the 2015 World Championship. The first round of competition kicks off with the Group Stage.

Ahead of the Group Stage you can catch up on all 16 teams competing in the 2015 World Championship, here.

Read on to find out more about which teams are competing in which Group, the Group Stage format, how Groups were chosen, and when you can catch all of the action.

The Worlds 2015 Groups:

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WHAT IS THE GROUP STAGE FORMAT?

The first phase of the 2015 World Championship tournament is referred to as the Group Stage. This year, the Group Stage will be held in Paris, France over the course of two weeks, starting October 1.

The format of the Group Stage is a Best of 1, double Round Robin. Each team in a Group plays all other teams in their Group twice. Afterward, the two teams with the best record from each Group will advance to the Knockout Stage of the 2015 World Championship, while the bottom two teams will be eliminated. Any potential tiebreakers will be played out during the second week of the Group Stage.

HOW WERE GROUPS DETERMINED?

Teams' placements in Groups were determined live by random weighted draw on the Group Draw show. You can catch a VOD of the Group Draw Show below.

The Group Draw followed several rules, one of which was that no teams from the same region could be in the same Group. Additionally, not every region needed to be represented in each Group. For example, you could have a group with NA, EU, KR, and IWC, but not CN.

Teams were distributed into Groups by drawing them from three different pools based on the procedure illustrated below.

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The teams were placed into pools based on their regional seeding.

  • Pool 1: The No. 1 seeds from Korea, China, Europe, and North America
  • Pool 2: The No. 2 and 3 seeds from Korea, China, the No. 2 seeds from Europe and North America, and the No. 1 and 2 seeds from the LMS.
  • Pool 3: The No. 3 seeds from Europe and North America, and both seeds from the IWC Qualifiers.

Some additional rules also applied. If you want more specific details on how exactly teams were drawn from pools into Groups, check out this detailed post.

WHAT’S ON THE LINE IN THE GROUP STAGE?

In the Group Stage, teams are playing for placement into the Quarterfinals round of the Knockout Stage of the tournament. The top two teams from each Group will be placed in the Quarterfinals bracket based on their record within their Group.

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Placement is important, as teams that finish No 1. in their group will play a team that finished No. 2 from another group.

Teams will also earn prize money based on their finish in the Group Stage. While every team gets something, the better they place, the more they get. You can check out prizing information here.

WHEN CAN I WATCH THE GROUP STAGE?

The Group Stage will take place over two weeks in Paris, France.

  • Date: October 1-4 and 8-11
  • Location: Le Dock Pullman, batiment 137, 50 Avenue du Président Wilson, 93200 La Plaine Saint-Denis, France

Here is when you can tune in to Lolesports to watch the games live:

  • October 1: 16:00 CEST / 7 AM PDT
  • October 2: 16:00 CEST / 7 AM PDT
  • October 3: 14:00 CEST / 5 AM PDT
  • October 4: 14:00 CEST / 5 AM PDT
     
  • October 8: 14:00 CEST / 5 AM PDT
  • October 9: 14:00 CEST / 5 AM PDT
  • October 10: 12:00 CEST / 3 AM PDT
  • October 11: 10:00 CEST / 1 AM PDT

After the matches each day, stay tuned to the Lolesports broadcast for Worlds Tonight, a new 15-minute show that recaps the events of the day and gets you caught up to speed on the big takeaways. We'll of course also have PrimeTime League, coming to you from Paris. Learn about the matchups, listen in on the Pros with Mic Check, and countdown the biggest plays of the 2015 Championship in The Penta!

If you happen to miss any of the games live, we have a spoiler-free VODs archive where you can watch every match. But, if you want to catch the entire show, we'll also be rebroadcasting our live show at 4 PM PDT on match days. You can catch those rebroadcasts here at Lolesports.

23 Comments

Benny19909/14/2015, 6:24:48 PM4 votes

CLG should be gay too such an easy group for them

PotatoChipz9/14/2015, 7:15:41 PM2 votes

everyone already knows dunkey is gonna win worlds.

Vrothix9/14/2015, 7:40:57 PM2 votes

I wish they always had a spoiler free VOD's archive. So many times I couldn't watch the games live but I always went back and watched the VODs. It just isn't quite as good watching a game when you already know who is going to win.

Wyrdfell9/30/2015, 6:45:16 PM2 votes

I just wanna see C9 make it out of groups because no one expects them to.

Supreme Cort9/15/2015, 3:47:44 AM1 votes

No Xmithy RIP CLG

Swlocks9/14/2015, 6:09:06 PM1 votes

[deleted]

Garlic Butter9/15/2015, 7:37:05 AM1 votes

#1 in their group gets paired against #2 in another group? That seems stacked in favor of #1s not having to fight each other till later, I've seen this occasionally at round robin tournaments and it is extremely terrible idea. Better to go #1s in each group fight #1s in other group, loser drops to 4th(or 8th) place. #2s fight each other to fight the winner of #1s winner, loser drops to 3rd place(or 7th), and so on and so forth, the point of that is the incentive to not tie, share prize pool behind the scenes, etc, as being crushed from 1st("2nd") place to 8th or lower is quite the blow and "puts more on the line." Encourages sportsmanship of a higher level and a more desperate mental state in both teams leading to a FAR more exciting and equally paired match (instead of curbstomp battle or underdog comeback battle both of which are quite uninteresting/predictable/unchallenging for at least one team. As since is such the lay out I will not be following the eSports now (previous to this ruling information I was going to watch for once, as the teams seemed interesting this time around, but now I know this kind of stacking practice will go on it will be unpleasent to watch).

Sneaky Fast9/17/2015, 3:20:05 AM1 votes

Imp will win yet again.