Worlds 2021, one of the biggest tournaments in the world and the closing event of the year for the League of Legends scene, has started the hype today with the Group Draw Show. The tournament will start on October 5.
Now, lets take a look at the groups.
Worlds 2021 Play-In Draw
Group A
- LNG Esports (LNG – LPL 4th seed)
- Hanwha Life Esports (HLE – LCK 4th seed)
- Infinity Esports (INF – LLA 1st seed)
- PEACE (PCE – LCO 1st seed)
- Red Canids (RED – CBLOL 1st seed)
Group A has the blessing and the curse of having both of the titans – LNG and Hanwha Life – together fighting for the easy ticket to Groups that will be given to first place. Only one of them will take it but the other doesn’t look like they’ll have a hard time grabbing it the hard way – beating the third or fourth place of Group B.
Infinity Esports, PEACE and Red Canids are unfortunately caught in the crossfire and it looks like their only way out is beating the second place of Group B. Still, even if they don’t make it out, their players will be tested against Chovy and the like, and that’s worth something, even if that something is not why teams usually play for in Worlds.
Group B
- Beyond Gaming (BG – PCS 2nd seed)
- Cloud 9 (C9 – LCS 3rd seed)
- Unicorns of Love (LCL 1st seed)
- Galatasaray Esports (GS – TCL 1st seed)
- DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM – LJL 1st seed)
In every Worlds, there is a “Group of Death”, a group where you know who will advance and who will not at the first sight. There is also a “Group of Excitement” – I coined that just right now – a group that no one knows what will happen, and therefore is the most exciting group in the tournament. This year, we have that group earlier, in Play-In stage.
This groups is an arena – Five teams enter, only two leaves. Well, I say leaves but one of them very well may not. But when you look at these teams, any of them can be first place and last place and they surely can beat the third or fourth place of Group A. Beating one of HLE or LNG may be more difficult but this is Worlds, anything can happen.
Worlds 2021 Group Stage Draw
Group A
- Damwon Kia (DK – LCK 1st seed)
- FunPlus Phoenix (FPX – LPL 2nd seed)
- Rogue (RGE – LEC 3rd seed)
- Play-In Participant
Speaking of Group of Death, this is it. Like textbook Group of Death. 2019 Worlds champions, 2020 Worlds champions and two unlucky teams whose Worlds run has shamefully come to an early end. And as fate would have it, one of those unlucky teams is Rogue, who were also in the nearly exact Group of Death last year with JD Gaming (2nd seed of LPL) and Damwon Kia (1st seed of LCK).
Nevertheless, Rogue and the unlucky Play-In participant (Which will probably be Cloud 9 since neither HLE nor LNG can join this group) will get to face the two early favorites to win Worlds 2021, Damwon Kia and Funplus Phoenix, early on and hopefully live to tell the tale back home after Groups end.
Group B
- EDward Gaming (EDG – LPL 1st seed)
- 100 Thieves (100T – LCS 1nd seed)
- T1 (T1 – LCK 3rd seed)
- Play-In Participant
Breaker of hearts – mostly of their own fans – and slayer of LPL teams, EDG make their first Worlds appearance in 3 years after their absence in 2019 and 2020 as the first seed of China. Fortunately for them, their opponents also have not participated in Worlds 2020. 100 Thieves were not performing as good as they do today back then and T1 shocked everyone by not attending their first Worlds as LCK only had 3 seeds last year.
If you are a Play-In team that is not from China or Korea, this is the group you’d want to be in. It won’t be easy to advance because it never was going to be, in any group, but compared to the others this would be your biggest chance, if nothing more.
Group C
- PSG Talon (PSG – PCS 1st seed)
- Fnatic (FNC – LEC 2nd seed)
- Royal Never Give Up (RNG – LPL 3rd seed)
- Play-In Participant
PSG Talon won their region (and technically themselves) the place in Pool 1 as they had a top 4 placement in this years MSI. This may have saved them from facing against Damwon Kia, EDG or Mad Lions, but it did not save them from facing RNG, the team who eliminated them 3-1 in MSI and who won the whole thing. Oh and also Fnatic is in this group, in a respectable position after their ferocious performance against G2 Esports and Rogue.
These teams have something in common: all three of them have to prove themselves again and again unlike Damwon or G2. They are always underestimated unless they are overwhelmingly better than their opponents, even when they prove that they can perform. Sadly only two of these teams will have the chance to prove themselves to the world again.
Group D
- MAD Lions (MAD – LEC 1st seed)
- Gen.G (GEN – LCK 2nd seed)
- Team Liquid (TL – LCS 2nd seed)
- Play-In Participant
This is the Group of Excitement if you’re a North American fan. Even so, Team Liquid may very well be worth their salt but their opponents, Gen.G and MAD, did not show up in their region just to throw in the towel this early in Worlds. Still, if we consider odds, Team Liquid has a bigger chance to be NA’s one representative after Group Stage than 100 Thieves, but as I said, this is Worlds and anything can happen.
This is also an important group for MAD and Gen.G who look very strong and challenging in their region only to, if you’ll excuse the term, bomb out of Worlds due to a variety of factors like stage change (Online to LAN) and weight of expectations. Thankfully MAD won’t be playing in Play-In so they can’t possibly do worse than their performance in last year.
