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2017 World Championship Update

Riot·2/8/2017, 12:56:33 AM·5 votes·487,572 views

TL;DR:

  • Worlds 2017 will be a 24 team-tournament in China with teams from all 13 LoL professional leagues participating across multiple stages.
  • The Worlds 2017 tournament format has been expanded to include a Play-In Stage before the Group Stage.
  • LMS will now be awarded a 3rd regional seed for Worlds 2017.
  • Some regions will be able to earn a second seed for Worlds 2017 based on MSI 2017 results.
  • The three Korean seeds will not participate in the Play-In Stage and will be auto-seeded into the Group Stage.

As we announced today, the 2017 League of Legends World Championship is heading to China from September 23 - November 4. Here’s a detailed breakdown of updated teams, regional seeds, and format for Worlds 2017.

Teams

During Worlds 2017, 24 teams will participate across multiple stages at the 2017 World Championship from the following regions:

  • Brazil (BR)
  • China (CN)
  • Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
  • Europe (EU)
  • Japan (JPN)
  • Korea (KR)
  • Latin America - North (LAN)
  • Latin America - South (LAS)
  • North America (NA)
  • Oceania (OCE)
  • Southeast Asia (SEA)
  • Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau (LMS)
  • Turkey (TUR)

Regional Seeds

There are a couple of changes to the regional seeds including:

3 seeds for LMS: LMS will now be awarded 3 regional seeds for Worlds 2017 instead of the 2 regional seeds they had for Worlds 2016. The LMS was originally created as a division from GPL, which separated one region into two, and forced a similar split of the Worlds seeds. Since its 2015 creation, however, the LMS has been a consistently strong region, and so is being awarded with another seed to bring them to an equivalent number with CN, EU, KR, and NA.

Korea will not participate in the Play-In: Korea, as the region that has performed the best overall throughout 2015 and 2016, will have all 3 of its seeds bypass the Worlds 2017 Play-In Stage and start in the Group Stage.

MSI results will continue to impact Worlds 2017:  As with last year, some regional seeds placement at Worlds 2017 can be impacted by the MSI 2017 results, but differently from 2016. Learn more about the MSI 2017 implications here.

Some regions can gain a second seed from MSI 2017 results: The highest ranking region at MSI of BR, CIS, JPN, LAN, LAS, OCE, SEA, and TUR gains an additional seed at Worlds. The #1 seed of that region will be auto-seeded to Groups and the #2 seed will start from the Play-in. In the case that two of these regions earn identical results at MSI 2017, the extra seed will go to the region who advanced the furthest in Worlds/IWCQ in 2016.

While their leagues are continuing to mature and their teams earn better international results each year, we didn’t feel it appropriate to award a guaranteed 2nd seed to any of these regions, but performance in 2017 will be a major factor in determining seeds for 2018.

Format

As with MSI 2017, the World Championship will now have a Play-In Stage before the Group Stage.

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For more information about Worlds 2017, head over to our event site and stay tuned to Lolesports for updates.

 

Chris “RiotChopper” Hopper is one of the International Esports and League Operations Leads. His team is focused on the global development and operations of competitive League of Legends. RiotChopper is a sports fanatic who wins (almost) every Fantasy League among the Riot esports team and always cheers for his alma mater, Duke. Questions or want to chat about Magic: The Gathering? Reach out to him on Twitter via @RiotChopper.

 

Derrick “Riot FearGorm” Asiedu is part of our International Esports and League Operations Team. He works on the global development and operations of competitive League of Legends. He splits his time between global policy execution and implementation and supporting international events including MSI and Worlds. Riot FearGorm is jungler main and if possible, he would only play Hecarim. He used to have the most Hecarim games in the world. You can find him on Twitter at @FearGorm.

 

 

 

154 Comments

Honest Abe2/8/2017, 1:35:43 AM30 votes

I like it. Gives more teams and more regions an opportunity to participate at the Worlds stage.

LustxKatarina2/8/2017, 1:32:37 AM8 votes

After reading this, it makes me think that SKT has already won Worlds 2017! lol Katarina

Leo10242/8/2017, 1:41:59 AM6 votes

Hmmm... I've always wanted to go to China, maybe if I save enough I can go and catch worlds!

Darkvince2/8/2017, 2:54:04 AM5 votes

For round 1 why is it best of 1? make it a best of 3, like why not try and get the best teams

BigBellBrute2/9/2017, 6:23:47 AM5 votes

The good.
More regions get a chance to compete.
Another LMS team getting into the field.

The bad. Favorable seeds for regions based upon 2 years past performance. All that serves to do is prop up a region that has dropped off and punish a region that has become good. EU has dropped off considerably. Yet based upon the performance of Origin (who is in essence a challenger team this year) and Fnatic (who have taken a step backwards from their semi final form they're going to artificially be inflated with favorable seeding. Why should the Unicorns get a favorable draw at worlds or G2 or H2k based upon Origin's and Fnatic's performance? That's just giving a team that didn't earn it a favorable draw. And if Korea truly is the best region that we think they are, they should be able to handle the play in. Better yet. Why even have a play in?. Just increase the size of the field and have at it. Instead of having round 1 and round two of play in, increase round 1 to 8 groups of three, top two from each group advance. And then from there you have the standard 16 team group stage eliminating play in round 2. Nobody should get a bye. If they're truly good they'll make it out. Heck. And byes can end up bad for a team too.

And if we're going to look at performance, let's look at the entire performance, not just who made what round.
EU had the two worst teams in the field last year. Yet despite the two teams that didn't make it out going 2-10 vs the NA teams that didn't make it out going 6-6, EU somehow gets the same credit. Oh and NA went 4-0 against EU that round too as did Koprea. Yet, that doesn't count. Further, the EU team that made semis last worlds only did so because H2k didn't play a single NA or Korean team until said semis where they got dumpstered by the same Korean team c9 got dumpstered by the round before. Now that's a cupcake draw only Candy King Ivern's Daisy would think extra credit should be given for.

Speaking of favorable seeds, if we insist on them and you're going to give one for performance at mid season tourney, why not actually give it to the team that actually earned it? Why should TSM get a tourney #1 because CLG earned it for them?
Let's make the spring split mean something and let the winners of the spring split have something to shoot for FOR THEMSELVES.

facehunt2/8/2017, 1:38:06 AM4 votes

Does it hurt to not give Korea a 4th seed?? For real tho. Give them a seed at Play-in qualifiers. What is this half-assed way of rewarding the best region?

Smart Kitty2/8/2017, 3:16:06 AM4 votes

Finally more teams, and finally LMS gets a third seed! Can't wait!

Tolkmit2/8/2017, 7:53:09 AM4 votes

Nice thought, but completely failed to address the biggest problem with worlds: the random group BS. If MSI is going to be a seeding tool for worlds, let it actually be one. Eliminate random group draw, have which group each region's seeds go into determined by their results.

facehunt2/8/2017, 2:02:43 AM3 votes

LMS proving themselves as a good region and being given 3rd seed, while a region winning 3 Worlds in row and proving themselves as a best region not receiving a 4th seed. Yup, sounds fair.

Zabor652/11/2017, 1:13:37 PM2 votes

i am sad. Why would you hold your wonderful game's world championship in a country that oppresses basic human rights. It's one thing to let their teams participate as they themselves are not part of such an oppressive government. But to actually hold your event there is a shame. I will still probably play the game. But I probably won't spend any more money on skins, merchandise, etc.