2019 League of Legends World Championship

The 2019 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the ninth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. It was held from October 2, 2019, to November 10, 2019, in Berlin, Madrid and Paris.^[2] Twenty four teams from 13 regions qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in China, Europe, North America, South Korea and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau with twelve of those teams having to reach the main event via a play-in stage.

League of Legends
World Championship

2019
Tournament information
Sport	League of Legends
Location	France Germany Spain
Dates	October 2–November 10
Administrator	Riot Games
Tournament format(s)	12 team double round-robin play-in stage 16 team double round-robin group stage 8 team single-elimination bracket
Venues	4 (in 3 host cities) LEC Studio (Berlin, Play-in stage) Verti Music Hall (Berlin, Main group stage) Palacio Vistalegre (Madrid, Quarterfinals & Semifinals) AccorHotels Arena (Paris, Finals)
Teams	24
Final positions
Champion	FunPlus Phoenix
Runner-up	G2 Esports
Tournament statistics
Attendance	Peak viewership: 43.982.055[1]
MVP	Gao "Tian" Tianliang (FunPlus Phoenix)
← 2018 2020 →

"Phoenix" was the tournament's theme song, put together by Chrissy Costanza and Cailin Russo, while Blanke, Carpenter Brut, and 1788-L produced their own remix versions of "Phoenix".^[3][4] A virtual rap group named "True Damage" was unveiled by Riot Games during the ceremony, with Soyeon from (G)I-dle, Duckwrth, Thutmose, Keke Palmer and Becky G representing the group as its human counterpart and in the live performance of their debut song, "Giants", in the finals.^[5]

Qualified teams

Based on the results of the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship in the year prior, with the 2018 MSI victory of Royal Never Give Up and 2018 Worlds victory of Invictus Gaming, the third seed team from China (LPL) will start in the group stage, replacing the third seed team from South Korea (LCK) that will now instead begin in the play-in stage.^[6] Due to the merger of Latin America North's and Latin America South's professional leagues into a single league (LLA) and the results of the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, Vietnam (VCS) will have a direct spot in the group stage for the summer champions and an additional spot in the play-in stage for the summer runner-up, the same format used in 2017 Worlds. The summer champions of Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau (LMS) have also been dropped to pool #2.^[7]

Region	League	Path	Team	ID	Pool
Starting in the main event's group stage
China	LPL	Summer Champion	FunPlus Phoenix	FPX	1
		Most Championship Points	Royal Never Give Up	RNG	2
		Regional Finals Winner	Invictus Gaming	IG
Europe	LEC	Summer Champion	G2 Esports	G2	1
		Regional Finals Winner	Fnatic	FNC	2
North America	LCS	Summer Champion	Team Liquid	TL	1
		Most Championship Points	Cloud9	C9	2
South Korea	LCK	Summer Champion	SK Telecom T1	SKT	1
		Most Championship Points	Griffin	GRF	2
TW/HK/MO	LMS	Summer Champion	J Team	JT	2
		Most Championship Points	ahq e-Sports Club	AHQ	2
Vietnam	VCS	Summer Champion	GAM Esports	GAM	2
Starting in the play-in stage
Europe	LEC	Regional Finals Runner-up	Splyce	SPY	1
North America	LCS	Regional Finals Winner	Clutch Gaming	CG
South Korea	LCK		Damwon Gaming	DWG
TW/HK/MO	LMS		Hong Kong Attitude	HKA
Vietnam	VCS	Summer Runner-up	Lowkey Esports	LK	2
CIS	LCL	Summer Champion	Unicorns of Love	UOL
Latin America	LLA		Isurus Gaming	ISG
Turkey	TCL		Royal Youth	RYL
Brazil	CBLOL		Flamengo eSports	FLA	3
Japan	LJL		DetonatioN FocusMe	DFM
Oceania	OPL		Mammoth	MMM
Southeast Asia	LST		MEGA Esports	MG

Venues

Berlin, Madrid, Paris were the three cities chosen to host the competition.

Berlin, Germany		Madrid, Spain	Paris, France
Play-in Stage	Main Group Stage	Quarterfinals & Semifinals	Finals
LEC Studio	Verti Music Hall	Palacio Vistalegre	AccorHotels Arena
Capacity: 174	Capacity: 2,250	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 20,300
Berlin		Madrid	Paris

Play-in stage

• Venue: LEC Studio, Berlin, Germany.^[2]

Groups

The group stage took place from 2 to 5 October, with matches beginning at 13:00 CEST (UTC+02:00) for the first leg and 12:00 for the second. Twelve teams were drawn into four groups of three, with each group playing a double round-robin format and all matches contested as best-of-one. When teams finished with identical win–loss and head-to-head records, a tiebreaker match was held to determine first or second place. The top two teams from each group advanced to the second round, while the third-place team was eliminated.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Clutch Gaming	5	3	2	.600	Advance to play-in knockouts
2	Unicorns of Love	6	3	3	.500
3	Mammoth	5	2	3	.400

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record 3) Tiebreaker match(es); 4) Total game victory time^[a]

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Splyce	4	3	1	.750	Advance to play-in knockouts
2	Isurus Gaming	4	2	2	.500
3	DetonatioN FocusMe	4	1	3	.250

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record 3) Tiebreaker match(es); 4) Total game victory time^[a]

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Hong Kong Attitude	4	3	1	.750	Advance to play-in knockouts
2	Lowkey Esports	4	2	2	.500
3	MEGA Esports	4	1	3	.250

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record 3) Tiebreaker match(es); 4) Total game victory time^[a]

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	DAMWON Gaming	4	4	0	1.000	Advance to play-in knockouts
2	Royal Youth	5	2	3	.400
3	Flamengo eSports	5	1	4	.200

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record 3) Tiebreaker match(es); 4) Total game victory time^[a]

Knockouts

• Eight teams are drawn randomly into a single-elimination match, with first-place teams of each group facing second-place teams of another group.
• All matches are best-of-five.
• The first-place team chooses the side for all odd-numbered games, while the second-place team chooses the side of even-numbered games.
• The winner advances to the main event group stage as pool #3.

	Round 1
	October 7, 13:00 CEST
	D1	DAMWON Gaming	3
	C2	Lowkey Esports	1
	October 7, 18:00 CEST
	A1	Clutch Gaming	3
	D2	Royal Bandits	0
	October 8, 13:00 CEST
	C1	Hong Kong Attitude	3
	B2	Isurus Gaming	1
	October 8, 18:00 CEST
	B1	Splyce	3
	A2	Unicorns of Love	2

Source: Dot Esports

Group stage

The group stage was held at the Verti Music Hall in Berlin from 12 to 20 October. Sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four, with teams from the same region not permitted to be placed in the same group. The stage was played in a double round-robin format, with all matches contested as best-of-one. In cases where teams finished with identical win–loss and head-to-head records, a tiebreaker match was held to determine first or second place. The top two teams from each group advanced to the knockout stage, while the bottom two were eliminated.^[2]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Griffin	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	G2 Esports	6	5	1	.833
3	Cloud9	6	2	4	.333
4	Hong Kong Attitude	6	0	6	.000

Source: Dot Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	FunPlus Phoenix	6	4	2	.667	Advance to knockouts
2	Splyce	6	4	2	.667
3	J Team	6	3	3	.500
4	GAM Esports	6	1	5	.167

Source: Dot Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	SK Telecom T1	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	Fnatic	6	4	2	.667
3	Royal Never Give Up	6	3	3	.500
4	Clutch Gaming	6	0	6	.000

Source: Dot Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	DAMWON Gaming	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	Invictus Gaming	6	4	2	.667
3	Team Liquid	6	3	3	.500
4	ahq Esports Club	6	0	6	.000

Source: Dot Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Head-to-head record

Knockout stage

The knockout stage featured eight teams drawn into a single-elimination bracket. All matches were contested as best-of-five series. Each first-place team from the group stage was matched against a second-place team from a different group. The first-place team selected the side for all odd-numbered games, while the second-place team chose the side for even-numbered games. Teams that had advanced from the same group were placed on opposite sides of the bracket, ensuring that they could not meet until the final.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

October 26

A1

Griffin

1

November 2

D2

Invictus Gaming

3

D2

Invictus Gaming

1

October 26

B1

FunPlus Phoenix

3

B1

FunPlus Phoenix

3

November 10

C2

Fnatic

1

B1

FunPlus Phoenix

3

October 27

A2

G2 Esports

0

C1

SK Telecom T1

3

November 3

B2

Splyce

1

C1

SK Telecom T1

1

October 27

A2

G2 Esports

3

D1

Damwon Gaming

1

A2

G2 Esports

3

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinals	October 26	Griffin	1	–	3	Invictus Gaming	Madrid, Spain
		Source					Palacio Vistalegre
		0	Game 1			1
		0	Game 2			1
		1	Game 3			0
		0	Game 4			1

Quarterfinals	October 26	FunPlus Phoenix	3	–	1	Fnatic	Madrid, Spain
		Source					Palacio Vistalegre
		1	Game 1			0
		1	Game 2			0
		0	Game 3			1
		1	Game 4			0

Quarterfinals	October 27	SK Telecom T1	3	–	1	Splyce	Madrid, Spain
		Source					Palacio Vistalegre
		1	Game 1			0
		1	Game 2			0
		0	Game 3			1
		1	Game 4			0

Quarterfinals	October 27	Damwon Gaming	1	–	3	G2 Esports	Madrid, Spain
		Source					Palacio Vistalegre
		0	Game 1			1
		1	Game 2			0
		0	Game 3			1
		0	Game 4			1

Semifinals

Semifinals	November 3	Invictus Gaming	1	–	3	FunPlus Phoenix	Madrid, Spain
		Source					Palacio Vistalegre
		0	Game 1			1
		1	Game 2			0
		0	Game 3			1
		0	Game 4			1

Semifinals	November 3	G2 Esports	3	–	1	SK Telecom T1	Madrid, Spain
		Source					Palacio Vistalegre
		1	Game 1			0
		0	Game 2			1
		1	Game 3			0
		1	Game 4			0

Final

Main article: 2019 League of Legends World Championship Final

Final	November 10	FunPlus Phoenix	3	–	0	G2 Esports	Paris, France
		Source					AccorHotels Arena
		1	Game 1			0
		1	Game 2			0
		1	Game 3			0

Ranking

Team ranking

• (*) Not include tie-break games.

Place	Region	Team	PS1	PS2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (USD)
1st	LPL	FunPlus Phoenix*			4–2	3–1	3–1	3–0	37.5%	$834,375
2nd	LEC	G2 Esports*			5–1	3–1	3–1	0–3	13.5%	$300,375
3rd–4th	LCK	SK Telecom T1			5–1	3–1	1–3		7%	$155,750
	LPL	Invictus Gaming			4–2	3–1	1–3
5th–8th	LCK	Damwon Gaming	4–0	3–1	5–1	1–3			4%	$89,000
	LCK	Griffin*			5–1	1–3
	LEC	Splyce*	3–1	3–2	4–2	1–3
	LEC	Fnatic			4–2	1–3
9th–12th	LMS	J Team			3–3				2.25%	$50,062.50
	LPL	Royal Never Give Up			3–3
	LCS	Team Liquid			3–3
	LCS	Cloud9			2–4
13th–16th	VCS	GAM Esports			1–5				1.25%	$27,812.50
	LMS	ahq e-Sports Club			0–6
	LMS	Hong Kong Attitude	3–1	3–1	0–6
	LCS	Clutch Gaming*	2–2	3–0	0–6
17th–20th	LCL	Unicorns of Love*	2–2	2–3					0.75%	$16,687.50
	VCS	Lowkey Esports	2–2	1–3
	LLA	Isurus Gaming	2–2	1–3
	TCL	Royal Youth*	1–3	0–3
21st–24th	OPL	Mammoth*	2–2						0.5%	$11,125
	CBLOL	Flamengo eSports*	1–3
	LJL	DetonatioN FocusMe	1–3
	LST	MEGA Esports	1–3
Place	Region	Team	PS1	PS2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (USD)

Notes

1. The total amount of time it took a team to win their games against all other teams in the tiebreaker