Riot announces details on League of Legends international events

It looks like League World Championship this year is heading to China for the first time, from September 23rd to November 4th. It is getting a format face-lift, now featuring twenty-four teams rather than the typical sixteen. On the other side, MSI will be heading to Brazil from April 28th to May 21st, but as well as taking place in a new location, the event has also received some format changes.

Last year’s MSI featured just six teams – the champions of the Spring Split of LCK (Korea), LPL (China), EU LCS, and NA LCS, as well as one International Wild Card team. This year, Riot are apparently using the concept of the International Wild Card and will for the first time be treating the smaller leagues that usually participate in IWC tournaments as separate entities for international tournaments. This means that MSI has now been expanded to host thirteen teams. As well as the five major leagues, representatives from the following regions will be in attendance: Japan (JPN), Brazil (BR), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Latin America – North (LAN), Latin America – South (LAS), Oceania (OCE), Southeast Asia (SEA), Turkey (TUR).

Along with the additional teams comes a new tournament structure. The event will still feature a six-team group stage, but now also a play-in stage to decide which teams get a place. As the highest-performing regions of the last two years, representatives from the LCK, LPL and EU LCS will have a guaranteed place in the group stage, while the other regions will need to play through the play-in. Like MSI, World’s will feature a play-in stage prior to the group stage, in which a representative from each of the formerly Wild Card regions will compete alongside the third-seeded teams from LPL, LMS, EU LCS and NA LCS. From this play-in stage, four teams will advance to the group stage.