2020 League of Legends World Championship

The 2020 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the tenth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. It was held from 25 September to 31 October in Shanghai, China.^[2] Twenty-two teams from eleven 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/Southeast Asia, with ten of those teams having to reach the main "groups" event via a play-in stage.

2020 League of Legends World Championship

Tournament information
Game	League of Legends
Location	China
Dates	25 September–31 October
Administrator	Riot Games
Tournament format(s)	10 team single round-robin play-in stage 16 team double round-robin group stage 8 team single-elimination bracket
Venue(s)	2 (in Shanghai) Shanghai Media Tech Studio (play-ins, groups, quarterfinals, semifinals) Pudong Football Stadium (finals)
Teams	22
Final positions
Champion	Damwon Gaming
Runner-up	Suning
Tournament statistics
Attendance	Peak viewership: 46,067,896[1]
MVP	Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu (Damwon Gaming)
← 2019 2021 →

"Take Over" was the tournament's theme song, put together by Henry Lau, Max Schneider, and A Day to Remember's lead vocalist Jeremy McKinnon.^[3]

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues

The COVID-19 pandemic, which was mainly confined to China in January and early February 2020, affected the multi-city hosting format that was present previously. On 1 August, Riot Games announced the dates and location of the event, with all stages taking place in Shanghai through the use of an "isolation bubble" environment.^[4]

In September 2020, Riot Games announced that due to travel restrictions, two teams from VCS of Vietnam would not participate in the tournament.^[5]

During the 2020 Worlds Group Draw Show, it was revealed that PSG Talon's members "River" and "Tank" would be unable to attend the play-in stage due to delayed visas and quarantine issues,^[6] and that Hsiao "Kongyue" Jen-tso and Chen "Uniboy" Chang-chu would be loaned from ahq eSports Club to replace them. The organization confirmed this in an official announcement the next day, and further stated that "Unified" would also be unable to participate in the first half of the play-in stage for the same reason. Chen "Dee" Chun-dee was loaned from Machi Esports to replace Unified.^[7]

Qualified teams and rosters

Qualified teams

As the two Vietnamese teams (the Champion's Team Flash and Runner-up's GAM Esports of VCS Summer) are unable to participate, the third seed team from South Korea (LCK) will be promoted to start in the main group stage, as they were previously dropped to the play-in stage. The qualification format for North America and Europe changed with teams directly qualifying based on the results from their respective summer playoffs. Due to the merger of Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau (LMS) and the Southeast Asian (LST) professional leagues into a single league (PCS) and have been reduced number of Worlds' spots from 4 to 2, Europe (LEC) will have another direct spot in the group stage and China (LPL) will have an additional spot in the play-in stage for the regional finals runner-up.^[8]

For the pool, the Main Group stage's pool #2 with 8 teams like as last year will be split to two pools #2 and pool #3, with 4 teams each pool. Qualified teams from Play-in stage will be drawn as pool #4. The Play-in stage's pool #3 in last year will be merged into pool #2, increased to 6 teams.^[9]

Region	League	Qualification Path	Team	ID	Pool
Started from Group Stage
China	LPL	Summer Champion	Top Esports	TES	1
		Most Championship Points	JD Gaming	JDG	2
		Regional Finals Winner	Suning	SN
Europe	LEC	Summer Champion	G2 Esports	G2	1
		Summer Runner-Up	Fnatic	FNC	2
		Summer 3rd Place	Rogue	RGE	3
South Korea	LCK	Summer Champion	Damwon Gaming	DWG	1
		Most Championship Points	DRX	DRX	2
		Regional Finals Winner	Gen.G	GEN	3
North America	LCS	Summer Champion	Team SoloMid	TSM	1
		Summer Runner-Up	FlyQuest	FLY	3
TW/HK/MO/SEA	PCS	Summer Champion	Machi Esports	MCX	3
Started from Play-in Stage
China	LPL	Regional Finals Runner-Up	LGD Gaming	LGD	1
Europe	LEC	Summer 4th Place	MAD Lions	MAD
North America	LCS	Summer 3rd Place	Team Liquid	TL
TW/HK/MO/SEA	PCS	Summer Runner-Up	PSG Talon	PSG
CIS	LCL	Summer Champion	Unicorns of Love	UOL	2
Latin America	LLA		Rainbow7	R7
Turkey	TCL		SuperMassive Esports	SUP
Brazil	CBLOL		INTZ	ITZ
Japan	LJL		V3 Esports	V3
Oceania	OPL		Legacy Esports	LGC

Venues

Shanghai was the city chosen to host the competition.^[2][10] Almost all matches were played at Shanghai Media Tech Studio without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the final match was held at Pudong Football Stadium.

Shanghai, China
Play-in Stage	Group Stage	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
Shanghai Media Tech Studio				Pudong Football Stadium
Capacity: 0				Capacity: 33,765
Shanghai

Play-in stage

• Venue: Shanghai Media Tech Studio.

Play-in groups

• Date and time: 25–28 September, began at 16:00 CST (UTC +08:00).
• Ten teams are drawn into two groups, with five teams in each group.
• Single round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
• If teams have same win–loss record at the end of play-ins, they play a tie-breaker match. A two-way tie is not broken by the results of the head-to-head game those teams played, however the team that won in the head-to-head gets side selection in the tiebreaker game.^[11]
• The top team automatically qualifies for the main event's group stage, while 2nd to 4th-place of each group advance to the play-in knockouts and 2nd-place receives a bye to Round 2. The bottom team is eliminated.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Team Liquid	5	4	1	.800	Advance to group stage
2	Legacy Esports	5	3	2	.600	Advance to play-in knockouts round 1
3	SuperMassive Esports	4	2	2	.500	Advance to play-in knockouts round 2
4	MAD Lions	5	2	3	.400
5	INTZ	5	1	4	.200

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

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	PSG Talon	5	4	1	.800	Advance to group stage
2	Unicorns of Love	5	3	2	.600	Advance to play-in knockouts round 1
3	Rainbow7	4	2	2	.500	Advance to play-in knockouts round 2
4	LGD Gaming	5	2	3	.400
5	V3 Esports	5	1	4	.200

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

Play-in knockouts

• Date and time: 29–30 September
• King of the hill format with two branch. Single-elimination. All matches are best-of-five.
• The 3rd-place and 4th-place teams from the same group play each other in Round 1. Winner will play against with the 2nd-place team from other group in Round 2.
• The upper-place team chooses the side for all odd-numbered games, while the lower-place team chooses the side of even-numbered games.
• The winners of the Round 2 in each branch advances to the main event's group stage.

	Round 1					Round 2
						A2	Legacy Esports	0
	B3	Rainbow7	0			B4	LGD Gaming	3
	B4	LGD Gaming	3
						B2	Unicorns of Love	3
	A3	SuperMassive Esports	3			A3	SuperMassive Esports	0
	A4	MAD Lions	2

Source: LoL Esports

Group stage

• Venue: Shanghai Media Tech Studio.
• Date and time: 3–11 October, began at 16:00 CST (UTC +08:00).
• Sixteen teams are drawn into four groups with four teams in each group based on their seeding. Teams of the same region cannot be placed in the same group.
• Double round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
• If teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record, a tiebreaker match is played for first or second place.
• Top two teams will advance to Playoff Stage. Bottom two teams are eliminated.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Suning	7	5	2	.714	Advance to knockouts
2	G2 Esports	7	4	3	.571
3	Team Liquid	6	3	3	.500
4	Machi Esports	6	1	5	.167

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

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Damwon Gaming	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	JD Gaming	6	4	2	.667
3	PSG Talon	6	2	4	.333
4	Rogue	6	1	5	.167

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

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Gen.G	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	Fnatic	6	4	2	.667
3	LGD Gaming	6	3	3	.500
4	Team SoloMid	6	0	6	.000

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

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	TOP Esports	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	DRX	6	4	2	.667
3	FlyQuest	6	3	3	.500
4	Unicorns of Love	6	0	6	.000

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

Playoff stage

• Date and time: 15–31 October, all matches will begin at 18:00 CST (UTC +08:00).
• Eight teams are drawn into a single elimination bracket.
• All matches are best-of-five.
• The 1st-place team of each group is drawn against the 2nd-place team of a different group.
• Teams from same group will be on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they cannot play each other until the Finals.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

D1

Top Esports

3

C2

Fnatic

2

Top Esports

1

Suning

3

A1

Suning

3

B2

JD Gaming

1

Suning

1

Damwon Gaming

3

C1

Gen.G

0

A2

G2 Esports

3

G2 Esports

1

Damwon Gaming

3

B1

Damwon Gaming

3

D2

DRX

0

Source: LoL Esports

Ranking

Team ranking

• (*) Not include tie-break games.
• The Vietnamese teams from VCS Summer who are unable to attend will be earned a 2.1% of prize pool, with 1.5% of Main Group Stage seed for the Champion (Team Flash) and 0.6% of Play-in Groups seed for the Runner-up (GAM Esports).

Place	Region	Team	PG	PK1	PK2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (USD)
1st	LCK	Damwon Gaming	–	–	–	5–1	3–0	3–1	3–1	25%	$556,250
2nd	LPL	Suning*	–	–	–	4–2	3–1	3–1	1–3	17.5%	$389,375
3rd–4th	LEC	G2 Esports*	–	–	–	4–2	3–0	1–3		9%	$200,250
	LPL	Top Esports	–	–	–	5–1	3–2	1–3
5th–8th	LEC	Fnatic	–	–	–	4–2	2–3			4.5%	$100,125
	LCK	Gen.G	–	–	–	5–1	0–3
	LPL	JD Gaming	–	–	–	4–2	1–3
	LCK	DRX	–	–	–	4–2	0–3
9th–11th	LCS	Team Liquid*	3–1	–	–	3–3				2.5%	$55,625
	LPL	LGD Gaming*	1–3	3–0	3–0	3–3
	LCS	FlyQuest	–	–	–	3–3
12th	PCS	PSG Talon*	3–1	–	–	2–4
13th–14th	LEC	Rogue	–	–	–	1–5				1.5%	$33,375
	PCS	Machi Esports	–	–	–	1–5
15th–16th	LCS	Team SoloMid	–	–	–	0–6
	LCL	Unicorns of Love*	3–1	–	3–0	0–6
17th	OPL	Legacy Esports*	3–1	–	0–3					1%	$22,250
18th	TCL	SuperMassive Esports	2–2	3–2	0–3
19th	LEC	MAD Lions*	1–3	2–3						0.75%	$16,687.50
20th	LLA	Rainbow7	2–2	0–3
21st–22nd	CBLOL	INTZ*	1–3							0.6%	$13,350
	LJL	V3 Esports*	1–3
Place	Region	Team	PG	PK1	PK2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (USD)

Regional ranking

• The win-ratio is determined by number of won games compared the number of games played.
• Bracket stage wins are prioritized.
• (*) Does not include tiebreaker games.

Place	Region	League	Teams	Play-in Stage			Main Event
				Groups (4 games total)	K.O Round 1 (Best-of-five)	K.O Round 2 (Best-of-five)
							Group stage (6 games total)	Quarterfinals (Best-of-five)	Semifinals (Best-of-five)	Finals (Best-of-five)
1st	South Korea	LCK	3G				3 teams 14W-4L (77.78%)	3 teams 3W-6L (33.33%)	1 team 3W-1L (75%)	1 team 3W-1L (75%)
2nd	China	LPL	3G+1P	1 team* 1W-3L (25%)	1 team 3W-0L (100%)	1 team 3W-0L (100%)	4 teams 16W-8L (66.67%)	3 teams 7W-6L (53.85%)	2 teams 4W-4L (50%)	1 team 1W-3L (25%)
3rd	Europe	LEC	3G+1P	1 team* 1W-3L (25%)	1 team 2W-3L (40%)		3 teams* 9W-9L (50%)	2 teams 5W-3L (62.50%)	1 team 1W-3L (25%)
4th	North America	LCS	2G+1P	1 team* 3W-1L (75%)			3 teams 6W-12L (33.33%)
5th	TW/HK/MO/SEA	PCS	1G+1P	1 team* 3W-1L (75%)			2 teams 3W-9L (25%)
6th	CIS	LCL	1P	1 team* 3W-1L (75%)		1 team 3W-0L (100%)	1 team 0W-6L (0%)
7th	Oceania	OPL	1P	1 team* 3W-1L (75%)		1 team 0W-3L (0%)
8th	Turkey	TCL	1P	1 team 2W-2L (50%)	1 team 3W-2L (60%)	1 team 0W-3L (0%)
9th	Latin America	LLA	1P	1 team 2W-2L (50%)	1 team 0W-3L (0%)
10th–11th	Brazil	CBLOL	1P	1 team* 1W-3L (25%)
	Japan	LJL	1P	1 team* 1W-3L (25%)

Notes

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