The League of Legends World Championship has begun! The play-in stage gathers the champions of the minor regions and the lower seeds of the major regions.We will the play-in teams as they show off their skill - and occasional mistakes - as they fight it out for the last four spots for the main event group stage.
The World Championship is upon us and the best League of Legends teams have arrived in Shanghai, where they will spend the next month in a fierce battle for the Summoner’s Cup. The tournament starts with the play-in stage, where the fourth seeds of the European and Chinese regions, the third NA seed, the second PCS seed and the champions of six minor regions - CIS, Turkey, Japan, Oceania, Brazil and Latin America - will fight for the four last spots in the main event groups. The ten teams are separated in two groups of five, where they will play a single round robin. The top teams of either group will directly progress to the next stage, while the second, third and fourth teams will play for the two remaining spots. The last team in each group will, sadly, have to go home and watch the championship as the rest of us do - through the streams.
Speaking of streams, you can watch Worlds one the following channels:
Worlds 2020 Streams
- Official English Stream: Twitch / YouTube
- French: Twitch
- German: Twitch
- Italian: Twitch
- Polish: Twitch / YouTube
- Russian: Twitch / YouTube
Worlds 2020 Play-Ins Daily Recaps and Results
Day 6
Bo5 Match 1 - LGC vs LGD
LGD can breathe easy. They’ve made it into the Group phase. After a rough start plagued with inconsistency, the Chinese squad managed to find their footing and win another Bo5 with a 0-3 sweep against the OPL’s representative Legacy Esports. The Oceanic representatives made their region proud by being the first OPL team to make it to a Bo5 and even though they lost, they will go home with their heads held high. LGD was just the better team this time around even if LGC fought hard against the Chinese fourth-seed.
- Legacy Esports 0-1 LGD
- Legacy Esports 0-2 LGD
- LEgacy Esports 0-3 LGD
Day 5
Bo5 Match 2 - SUP vs MAD
It’s confirmed, one of the smaller regions will get a spot in the group stage of the World Championship. The LEC’s fourth seed Mad Lions faced off against Turkey’s SuperMassive Esports in the second best-of-five series of the day. It was time for Mad Lions to show up and prove why the LEC got to send 4 Teams to Worlds this year. The squad of rookies couldn’t shake their nerves though as they played a nail, biting series against SuperMassive. Blue Side seemed to be the dominant picking order, as whichever team got to pick first appeared to get the upper hand and therefore the victory. Lillia and Graves were also traded between the squads and SuperMassive showed off why the fae fawn has such high priority. In the end the Mad Lions fell 3-2 and SuperMassive will move on to face the Unicorns of Love tomorrow at around noon CEST.
- SuperMassive Esports 1-0 Mad Lions
- Mad Lion 1-1 SuperMassive Esports
- SuperMassive Esports 2-1 Mad Lions
- Mad Lions 2-2 SuperMassive Esports
- SuperMassive Esports 3-2 Mad Lions
Bo5 Match 1 - R7 vs LGD
LGD has finally arrived at Worlds. And it only took the entire group stage as well as a do-or-die tie break. In the first game of the play-in playoffs chinese fourth seed LGD faced off against the Latin American representative Rainbow 7. LGD had a bone to pick with the South Americans after their loss in the group stage. Pressure was on and LGD seemed to finally play up to the standard most expected from them, taking the best-of-five series 3-0, sweeping R7 in dominant fashion. LPL fans can breathe easy for one more day, because tomorrow LGD is set to face off against the OPL representative, Legacy Gaming. The game will begin at 8 AM (CEST).
- Rainbow 7 0-1 LGD
- Rainbow 7 0-2 LGD
- LGD 3-0 Rainbow 7
Day 4
The final day of Group A was a nail-biter. Especially for European fans who have a few added grey hairs after what the Mad Lions put them through. The team ended up losing to the Legacy Esports representing Oceana, putting the European fourth seat to 1-3 in the group. NALCS third seed Team Liquid continued their dominance with a statement win against Turkey’s Papara SuperMassive. The North American squad stumbled against Brazilian INTZ who saw a resurgence. The last regular match of the group was between Legacy Esports and Papara SuperMassive to see who would end up in a tiebreaker against Team Liquid for the first place. In the end Legacy won, leaving them at 3-1, just as the North American squad, while the Turkish team got third place and would have to play another game tomorrow. The Mad Lions had to face INTZ once more in a tie breaker for their life to see who would get fourth and who could fight another day. By the skin of their teeth, Mad Lion managed to squeak by the Brazilian representatives. The final game of the day was between TL and LGC. It was a quick affair, TL steamrolling the lads from down under in a 20-minute match.
- Papara SuperMassive 0-1 Team Liquid
- Mad Lions 0-1 Legacy Esports
- INTZ 1-0 Team Liquid
- Legacy Esports 1-0 vs Papara SuperMassive
- Tiebreakers:
- Mad Lions 1-0 INTZ
- Team Liquid 1-0 Legacy Esports
Day 3
Sunday was dedicated to wrapping up Group B and it was a doozy. LGD Gaming and PSG Talon somewhat predictably mopped up V3. Meanwhile, Unicorns of Love looked lost against Rainbow 7, but overcame a very bad start against LGD to turn the game around with an amazing performance by Ilya "Gadget" Makavchuk’s Twitch to tie PSG for first place and send LGD to a tiebreaker with V3 for fourth.
When PSG and the Unicorns clashed again, everything seemed to be going in favor of the CIS region team until a disastrous teamfight for let the PCS team back int the game and they took the win several minutes later after a clean ace. In the second tiebreaker, LGD had a strong early game and eventually eliminated the LJL representatives to get the last spot that gives them a chance for groups.
Still, let that sink in: the fourth Chinese seed had to play a tiebreaker to not get kicked out of the play-in. Yikes.
- V3 Esports 0-1 LGD Gaming
- Rainbow 7 1-0 Unicorns of Love
- PSG Talon 1-0 V3 Esports
- Unicorns of Love 1-0 vs LGD Gaming
- Tiebreakers:
- PSG Talon 1-0 Unicorns of Love
- LGD Gaming 1-0 V3 Esports
Day 2
Day 2 saw the debut of Unicorns of love, who showed up in their fights against V3 and PSG and are so far proving their fans right as one of the stronger teams in group B. Shockingly, group favorite LGD lost a second game in a row - this time to Rainbow 7 - and are currently in last place at 0:2 . In group A, meanwhile, MAD Lions’ troubles continue after Supermassive took them down in a decisive manner. Supermassive are now tied with Team Liquid for first place with a 2:0 record and their game on Monday promises to be spicy.
- Rainbow 7 0-1 V3 Esports
- INTZ 0-1 SuperMassive Esports
- V3 Esports 0-1 Unicorns of Love CIS
- LGD Gaming 0-1 Rainbow 7
- Unicorns of Love 1-0 PSG Talon
- SuperMassive Esports 1-0 MAD Lions
- Team Liquid 1-0 Legacy Esports
Day 1
The opening day already showed we can expect surprises. In group A, MAD Lions defeated INTZ in a contested game but fell to Team Liquid’s impressive teamfighting. After suffering another loss, this time to Legacy, INTZ are now dead last with a 0:2 record. Group B, meanwhile, saw PSG Talon show up in spite of the naysayers, taking down both Rainbow 7 and the group favorite LGD Gaming.
- MAD Lions 1-0 INTZ
- PSG Talon 1-0 Rainbow 7
- Legacy eSports 1-0 INTZ
- LGD Gaming 0-1 PSG Talon
- Team Liquid 1-0 MAD Lions
MORE WORLDS 2020:
- Top 10 Players to Watch at Worlds 2020
- League of Legends Worlds 2020 - TL vs MAD Highlights
- League of Legends Worlds 2020 - PSG vs LGD Highlights
We will update our coverage as the play-in stage progresses. For more League of Legends news and analysis, follow our League coverage at earlygame.com.