Staff Writer
The
League of Legends annual world tournament is already underway. The group stages
have finished and the teams have already locked in their spot in the knockout
stage. This year’s tournament is broken down into two parts, the group stage
and the knockout stage. The group stage consisted of sixteen teams divided into
four groups having four teams each. The
teams that qualified for the tournament were placed into each group according
to the ranking they achieved during the season. The number one seeds from
China, Europe, Korea, and North America were placed into the four different
groups along with the number two and three seeds from those regions. For the
first time there were two wild card teams playing, one from Turkey and the
other from Brazil.
The
four teams placed in each group played each other and each team played a total
of six games. The eight teams that had the best records moved on to the
knockout stage. The North American teams that moved on to the knockout stage were
Team Solo Mid (TSM) and Cloud Nine (C9). The three Chinese teams made it to the
second round were Star Horn Royal Club (SH), OMG, and Edward Gaming (EDG). The
last group who made it were the three Korean teams, Samsung Blue (SSB), Samsung
White (SSW), and Najin White Shield (NJS). No wild card teams and no European
teams made it through the group stages.
The
knockout stage is single elimination and consists of a quarterfinal, semifinal
and a grand final. Each round will be a best of five between two of the teams who
advanced from their groups.
