2021 LoL World Championship: Teams, Prize pool, Format and More

With domestic play finally wrapped up, 22 teams have their sights firmly locked on the Summoners cup. The 2020 champs, Damwon KIA are back to defend their throne. This is the pinnacle of League of Legends competition with a month's worth of entertaining games. Unfortunately due to travel restrictions, representatives of the VCS will still not be able to attend. At the time of writing it has been revealed members of the VCS are working with Riot to try and send their teams to Worlds 2021.

The tournament as per usual with is split into two portions, the play-in stage and the group stage.

With the absence of the VCS, the Worlds Play-in will once again be altered to make up for the missing teams. The Play-in stage has always been an exciting part of every international event with teams putting on a great show on a regular basis.

It is an opportunity for upcoming players as well as under-the-radar veterans to make their mark on esports' biggest stage. With no VCS, Europe's Rogue was bumped up directly to the main group stage.

Here are the ten teams taking part in the 2021 Worlds Play-in stage:

The ten teams will battle in two groups of five. The two teams that finish first will qualify automatically for the group stage. Teams that finish 2nd through 4th will compete in the Play-in knockout stage. In the knockout stage, 3rd faces 4th from the same group. The winner of those best-of-fives advance to the final round where they will face the two teams that finished in second place in the opposite group. The two remaining teams will punch their ticket to the main event.

The group stage portion of the World Championship is where the action truly comes alive. This is the best opportunity to see dream matches played out as well as an array of upsets.

All eyes will be on Damwon KIA as they look to put Korea back on top of the mountain. Their biggest competition will be the monstrous lineups from the LPL. Edward Gaming is back as the LPL's first seed and are looking to secure their second international title.

Here are the twelve teams that have automatically qualified for the Worlds group stage:

What is the format for the Worlds Group Stage?

The group stage will see sixteen teams split into four groups of four .The top two teams from each group will move onto the quarter-finals. The remaining eight teams will compete in a single elimination bracket.

The initial prize pool for Worlds 2021 is $2.25 million. Sales of the Championship skin and other exclusive content released for the event will also contribute to the total prize pool. Riot Games has not revealed the prize pool distribution for Worlds 2021. However, all VCS teams will receive their share of the prize money as if they had competed at the event.

The 2021 LoL World Championship play-in stage will kick off with a battle between two regional giants in the LCK and the LPL. LPL's fourth seed LNG Esports and LCK fourth seed Hanwha Life Esports. Here is the full schedule for the play-in stage:

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