Five of the Nineteen Places at Worlds Are Filled and the Pacific Region Took Three of Them a Fortnight Ago
The LCP finished its qualification in August. Korea, Europe, North America and Brazil are all still playing for theirs.
Nineteen teams will play at the League of Legends World Championship in October. Five of the places are settled, and three of those five went to the Asia-Pacific league.
Team Secret Whales qualified on the second of August by winning the LCP Split 3 Swiss stage without dropping a series. MVK Esports took the second place on the twenty-second on championship points. CTBC Flying Oyster took the third on the twenty-ninth through the lower bracket. The LCP was finished before September started.
The other two confirmed teams are Hanwha Life Esports, who qualified as MSI champions on the fifteenth of August, and Bilibili Gaming, who led the LPL on championship points and were confirmed on the thirteenth.
That leaves fourteen places and four regions still playing. The LCK playoffs run from the twenty-ninth of August to the thirteenth of September. The LEC playoffs started on the fifth and finish on the twentieth. The LCS runs from the twelfth of September into early October, and the CBLOL runs longest of all, into the second week. The last place is decided in the first days of October, roughly a fortnight before the tournament begins.
Finishing a month before everyone else is worth something and it costs something. The three Pacific teams get a month of scrims against nobody who matters and arrive rested. Every other qualifier arrives having just played the most important series of their year, which is either the worst possible preparation or the best, depending entirely on the result.