Looking ahead to the Worlds 2020 play-in stage

Worlds 2020 is almost upon us and we know all the teams that qualified for the play-in stage. Due to both Europe and China getting four seeds in total, we have some spicy matchups to look forward to.

The play-in stage is an event that leads to two qualifications for the Worlds 2020 main event. Top seeds from minor regions and 3rd or 4th seeds from major regions must fight each other to have a shot at the Worlds main event. Due to some unfortunate circumstances regarding COVID-19 we will not be seeing the Vietnamese teams. This leads to a new format and brings more excitement to the already stacked play-in stage.

The big favourites

For everyone surprised why LGD Gaming, MAD Lions and Team Liquid are in the play-in stage, there’s logic behind it. Due to Europe and China placing extremely high in the last two years when it comes to international events, they both got a 4th seed that allows for a play-in stage participation. For North America it’s the other way around. As a major region they have not gotten the results that were expected of them, thus sending their 3rd seed to the play-in stage. 

It should be no surprise that these three teams are also the favourites in the Worlds 2020 play-in stage. This also marks the return of Peanut, who missed out last year and is eager to prove himself. MAD Lions and Team Liquid have shown national dominance but dropped the ball in the play-offs, which means they’ve got a lot of eyes on them. For MAD Lions we’re expecting creative strategies and picks and for Team Liquid a more balanced teamfighting and front-to-back composition is expected.

Under the radar

Besides these teams from the major regions we also see the comeback of Unicorns Of Love, INTZ and Papara SuperMassive from the minor regions. These teams have qualified for the Worlds play-in stages before and INTZ has also played in the main event as well. All eyes are on them to take some games of the seeds from the major regions and perhaps upset them to qualify over them. The more consistent one of the three is Unicorns Of Love. Having shown a dominant regular summer split in the LCL (going 14-0), they also won against Gambit in the finals with a strong 3-1 score line. 

We can never count out the Brazilian seed INTZ as they always surprised us in the past, upsetting first seeds from  major regions in the main event when they were still considered “wildcards”. Although both INTZ and Papara SuperMassive had a lot of roster swaps in the regular season, they have finally found their final form. With the Korean powerduo KaKAO and SnowFlower, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Another name that might sound familiar is PSG Talon. Yes, the Paris Saint-Germain that used to field a roster in the French region. After unsuccessful tries in the “La Ligue Française” or the LFL for short, they have acquired a new roster in the Pacific Championship Series. After a 3rd place finish in the regular split they showed up against the 1st seed in the upper bracket finals. Eventually they lost the Grand Finals against them and got the 2nd seed to worlds, qualifying for the play-in stage. With a still internationally unproven roster they will be heavily reliant on veteran Hanabi in the toplane.

Will they surprise us?

Lastly, we have some teams of which we have no expectations coming into the play-in stage. They could either surprisingly smurf their way to the main event but are most likely to suffer some losses at the hands of previously mentioned teams. 

Nonetheless they all have a shot at making it and the first team that comes to mind is the 1st seed from Japan: V3 Esports. After having an incredible consistent 2020 year they have not undergone any roster changes. It felt like they were having some struggles in the early parts of the year but they finally found their win condition. Their Jungle (Bugi) and Mid (Ace) synergy was the best in their region, rocking the highest combined KDA of any team in the playoffs. 

The other team that might sound familiar is Rainbow7. We saw them back at MSI 2018, but they were unable to leave their mark on the event ending in 9-10th place. Although none of the members of that roster back in 2018 are returning to this year’s play-ins, they still carry some fame with their name. After playing three very close best-of-five series in the Liga Latinoamérica 2020, they qualified with the help of their best performing player Josedeodo, their jungler. Having shown 9 different champions in 14 games, this is the man we will be watching very closely.

After all of this, we still have one more team to talk about. Legacy Esports is the first seed from the Oceanic professional League of Legends league (OPL). They surprised everyone at the beginning of this year and they maintained dominance over the well known OPL teams like Chief Esports Club and Dire Wolves. Following a dominating 3-1 in the Grand Finals, we will be seeing a new and unproven OPL team with no expectations bound to their play. This might open up more creative play styles or game tactics and it’ll be interesting to see what they will bring to the world stage.

Conclusion

Just like every year, play-ins now get even more competitive with the 4th seed from the LPL and LEC. All eyes are on play-ins as this is where new strategies are played for the first time since a long downtime. Every year, a meta is set in the play-ins so everyone will be watching closely on what these 10 teams will bring.

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Image Credit (order of appearance): MAD Lions / Team Liquid / LGD Gaming
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