LoL Worlds 2022 Draw Revealed

The League of Legends World Championship 2022 draw ceremony has concluded on Sunday, September 11, giving the fans a better idea of what to expect in October-November. And while the draw has delivered some interesting matchups, one stands out as it sees familiar faces drawn into the same group.

The League of Legends World Championship 2022 draw concluded on Sunday, September 11, following the LoL Championship Series (LCS) grand finals between Cloud9 and 100 Thieves, unveiling where the 24 LoL teams will begin their journey for the Summoner’s Cup.

And just like any year before, the draw started by seeding the 12 Play-In teams into two groups of six. Here are the Worlds 2022 Play-In groups:

• Group A: Fnatic (LEC), DRX (LCK), Detonation FocusMe (LJL), Evil Geniuses (LCS), LOUD (CBLOL), Chiefs Esports Club (LCO)
• Group B: Beyond Gaming (PCS), Royal Never Give Up (LPL), Saigon Buffalo (VCS), MAD Lions (LEC), Istanbul Wildcats (TCL), Isurus Gaming (LLA)

The LoL Worlds 2022 Play-In stage will kick off on September 29 and culminate on October 4, with the final pair of matches determining which four teams will advance into the Main Stage.

The Play-Ins will feature 12 teams divided into two groups of six based on their seeding. The groups will use a best-of-one (Bo1) single round-robin format, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Main Event.

The second to fourth-placed teams will advance into the second round of the Play-In stage, also known as the Knockout Stage. In the Knockout stage, the third-placed team from the group stage will face the fourth-placed team in a best-of-five series.

The winner of the game will then face the second-placed team from the opposite group in a single-elimination Bo5 series to determine the final two teams who will advance into the Main Stage.

After the conclusion of the Play-In stage draw, the ceremony continued to the Main Stage draw, which seeded the remaining 12 teams into four groups of three. As per LoL rules, teams from the same region can’t be seeded into the same group, which resulted in the following draw:

• Group A: Cloud9 (LCS), T1 (LCK), EDward Gaming (LPL)
• Group B: JDG (LPL), G2 Esports (LEC), DWG KIA (LCK)
• Group C: Rogue (LEC), Top Esports (LPL), GAM Esports (VCS)
• Group D: Gen.G (LCK), CTBC Flying Oyster (PCS), 100 Thieves (LCS)

Interestingly, Group A of LoL Worlds 2022 sees the same three teams from the LoL Worlds 2017 seeded into the same group, giving LCS fans something to look forward to as they cheer on Cloud9 to emulate their success from five years ago.

In 2017, Cloud9 finished Group A in second place with a 3-3 record, behind SK Telecom T1 (5-1) and ahead of ahq eSports Club (2-4) and EDward Gaming (2-4).

Each of the four groups will welcome one of the four Play-In teams, following the rule of no teams from the same region being allowed in the same group.

This means that Fnatic, who are one of the main favorites to come out of the Play-Ins, will either join Group D or Group A since Groups B and C already feature a European team.

The LoL Worlds 2022 will start with the Play-In stage on September 29, with the Main Stage bout slated to begin on October 7.

The group stage will feature 16 teams divided into four groups of four. Each group will use a double round robin format, with all matches played as best-of-one (Bo1).

The top two teams from each group will then advance into the Playoffs, where a single elimination bracket, best-of-five (Bo5) format will be in place.

Notably, the teams will be seeded into the Playoffs randomly, with the first-place teams facing second-place teams, with no teams from the same group being allowed in the same half of the bracket.