In League of Legends, the groups for the LoL Worlds 2021 are set. The jungler of G2 Esports, Jankos, has drawn the lots: Group A is a death group with the 2 probably best teams in the world. Whoever comes in will be packing their bags.
This is how the LoL Worlds work: There are 4 groups of 4 teams each. They play against each other twice in “Best-of-One-Matches”. Only the two best teams from a group advance to the quarterfinals.
Three teams from each group are already set, the 4th place in each group will be occupied by teams from the preliminaries, the Play-Ins: Teams from the USA, China, and Korea that ended up in the Play-Ins frequently make it through.
Even later in the main group stage, it’s usually the case that teams from South Korea and China are stronger than teams from the USA and Europe. Therefore, these teams want as few “Asians” in their group as possible.
This is the group of death: In Group A of the LoL Worlds 2021 play:
- FunPlus Phoenix – the world champions from 2019 with superstar Doinb, jungler Tian, and an incredibly strong roster
- DAMWON Gaming – the world champions 2020 with midlaner Showmaker, jungler and Worlds 2020 MVP Canyon, and great additional players
- The poor Europeans from Rogue
- a “Play-In” team
The two favorites for the championship play against each other in group A
What makes the group so deadly? Damwon Gaming (South Korea) and FunPlus Phoenix (China) are currently the two best LoL teams in the world. According to bookmakers, they are the two teams with the highest chances of winning the championship. It’s not really close. Except for them, only “Edward Gaming” has quite good odds.
Both teams are excellently staffed in all positions: In rankings of the “best LoL players in the world”, the players from both teams consistently appear in various orders. Especially Doinb, Showmaker, Canyon, and Tian are regarded as exceptional players. The supporters of the teams, Crisp and Beryl, also set standards.
Interestingly, top-laner Nuguri played for DAMWON Gaming in 2020 and became world champion with them, but in 2021 he switched to FunPlus Phoenix.
The jungler Jankos, who drew the groups, also had some emotions when he reached into the draw pot.
How do the other groups look?
Group B is:
- Edward Gaming – a very strong team from China
- 100 Thieves – the surprise champion from the USA
- T1 – the Koreans around Faker, who finally wants to win his 4th World Championship title
Here, the US champion is likely to face elimination right at the start.
Group C consists of:
- PSG Talon – an underdog organization from Hong Kong, partnered with Paris Saint Germain
- Fnatic – the “biggest team” in Europe had a resurrection in 2021 around a young French rookie
- Royal Never Give Up – the team that has been the “Uzi” show for years
Thus, Fnatic got a “relatively easy” group. PSG Talon is the only one in the main draw from a “not so big region”; the other teams have to go through the Play-Ins.
Group D consists of:
- MAD Lions – the relatively young European champion
- Gen G – an experienced Korean team known for its rivalry with T1
- Team Liquid – the US team must hope that MAD Lions or Gen G have a really weak day
This looks like manageable tasks for the MAD Lions.
How difficult the groups will be depends heavily on which “strong teams” from the Play-Ins are drawn into which group: Hamwha Life Esports (the Church of Chovy) and LNG Esports from China could mean an early exit for teams from Europe and the USA. Even if they are not quite as strong as the top 3: FunPlus Phoenix, DAMWON Gaming, and Edward Gaming.
The US team Cloud 9 with star player Perkz also has to qualify in the Play-Ins.
Jankos and G2, on the other hand, have very different concerns:
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