Everything You Need to Know About the Worlds 2021 Format

The 2021 World Championship is set to start in just a few weeks. Save the date, because October 5 means you won’t have any free time for a while with all the exciting action you’ll be watching.

Riot Games recently announced the format of the 2021 World Championship. We’re going to be giving you a short run down over the different phases and which teams will participate in them.

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What is the Worlds 2021 Schedule?

As we just mentioned, Worlds 2021 is set to start October 5, 2021. The event will span a whole month and conclude on November 6, 2021. Here is a full schedule of the 2021 World Championship:

• Play-Ins: Oct. 5-9
• Groups: Oct. 11-13 and Oct. 15-18
• Quarterfinals: Oct. 22-25
• Semifinals: Oct. 30-31
• Finals: Nov. 6

Most play-in and group phase games should start around 1 PM CEST.

Worlds 2021: Play-In Stage

Since 22 teams compete in total, not all of them can be placed in the main event, hence why the play-in stage exists. In this part of the tournament, the first seeded teams of the smaller regions, the second place of the PCS, third of the LCS and fourth of the LCK and LPL compete for the final four spots at Worlds.

During the play-in stage, ten teams are split into two groups of five. In each group, teams play a single round-robin to decide who is the winner. Teams that come out on top of their group move onto the 2021 World Championship group phase directly.

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The third and fourth-place teams of each group play a single best-of-five series to determine who will face off against the second-place team of the opposite group. The winner of that match also moves onto the group phase.

Which Teams Are Competing in the Play-In Stage?

As mentioned, there are ten teams competing in the play-in Stage:

• LCL: Unicorns of Love
• LJL: DetonatioN FocusME
• LCO: PEACE
• CBLoL: RED Canids
• LLA: Infinity Esports
• TCL: Galatasaray Esports
• PCS: Beyond Gaming
• LCS: Cloud9
• LCK: Hanwha Life Esports
• LPL: LNG Esports

Worlds 2021: Group Phase

The group phase encompasses sixteen teams. These teams are put into four groups of four. Each group plays a double round-robin tournament to determine the winners that move onto the knock-out rounds of the 2021 World Championship.

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Teams that automatically qualified for the group phase have been put into pools beforehand and then will be pulled to create the groups. Teams from the same region cannot be placed in the same pool. This means that Fnatic and Rogue cannot both be part of one group.

Which Teams are Competing in the Group Phase?

Twelve teams have automatically qualified for the group phase, while four more teams will be added after the play-in stage concludes.

• Pool A: EDward Gaming, DAMWON KIA, MAD Lions, and PSG Talon
• Pool B: FunPlus Phoenix, GEN G., Fnatic, and 100 Thieves
• Pool C: Royal Never Give Up, T1, Rogue, and Team Liquid

Worlds 2021: Knock-Out Rounds

The knockout rounds are the most exciting of the tournament. This part of the tournament is split into the quarter-final, semi-final and finals – all of which will take place in Iceland this year. The top eight teams of the group phase move onto the quarter-finals

So that’s everything you need to know about the format of this year's World Championship. Who is your dark horse pick? Do you think any surprise teams will make it out of the play-in stage? 

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