Worlds 2021: Play-In Predictions
The League of Legends world championship will be taking place in Iceland. As of September 22nd, the play in groups has been announced. With only two weeks until the event begins, let’s take a look at who will be punching their tickets to the main event.
Format Review
With 5 teams in each group, each team plays each other in a round-robin; 3 teams will move on to the next round, while the top of each group has confirmed their spot in the next round. This means the two lower teams will face off in a best of five matchups, and the winner will face the second-highest seed in each group.
Groups and Predictions
Group A: Hanwha Life Esports (Korea), LNG (China), Infinity Esports (Latin America), PEACE (Oceania), and Red Canids (Brazil).
Group B: Cloud9 (USA), Beyond Gaming (Taiwan), DetonatioN FocusMe (Japan), Unicorns of Love (Russia), and Galatasaray Esports (Turkey).
Group A is exciting, as LNG and Hanwha are both solid teams, and if I had to guess if anyone could come out of that group, it would be those two. I’d say PEACE and Infinity have the only other real chances, depending on what happens in Group B.
Speaking of Group B, it is not as definite in terms of the top two teams, such as Group A. Cloud9 stands out as the favorite to be the first to move on to the main event. Still, DetonatioN and Unicorns of Love are powerful teams in their own right.
So my final predictions:
LNG will win Group A, and Cloud9 will win Group B. Hanwha will defeat Unicorns of Love in the best of 5 to go to the main event. Then DetonatioN will defeat PEACE in their best of five to go to the main event.
Worlds begin in two weeks; who will take home the crown? Will North America finally win? (Probably not.)
