The 2021 World Championships was one for the record books. There were plenty of upsets, such as EDward Gaming’s championship winning run, Cloud9’s escape from the Group of Death, and T1’s group stage dominance. Still even though this Worlds featured some of the best match-ups in recent history, there was clearly plenty to improve on.
Much of what Worlds leaves to be desired in the tournament layout structure. The COVID-19 pandemic presented some interesting challenges for Riot Games, and generally they navigated the situation well. Still for Worlds 2022, the goals should be higher, and here is how Riot can reach them.
Finally implement double-elimination
For years fans have asked for double-elimination brackets in the Worlds Knockout Stage. We had three straight years of either sweeps or either sweeps or landslide victories. While EDward Gaming and Damwon Kia put on a show with a five-game thriller, there is still one blatant issue at Worlds that could be solved with double-elimination.
There aren’t enough international competitions. At Worlds 2021, we got only one EU vs NA match-up, the one games between Rogue and Cloud9. Riot’s dedication to putting one team from each region into a distinct group without ‘doubling up’ often results in a lackluster quarter-finals.
Once again, all of the LPL teams fell on one side of the bracket. RNG and EDG had to duke it out while we had two consecutive LCK matches through the Semi-Finals. While most of these games were exciting to watch, it’s hard not to think about the potential matches we missed out on.
Fans would have loved to see MAD Lions vs Cloud9, or RNG vs T1, but sadly this was not possible. Double elimination could exponentially increase the total number of international games at Worlds and keep the knockout stages just as exciting as groups.
Set the number of representatives
The number of teams from each region has changed quite drastically for the last three years. Last year, the LEC got four representatives, but this year both the LCK and LPL got four while everyone else either stayed at three or were reduced. Both the LPL and LCK were given extra slots for seemingly arbitrary reasons.
The pandemic has presented plenty of challenges, as Vietnam has been prohibited from playing the last three international events. This obviously impacts the number of teams being sent, but the system for determining the total number of representatives per region should be set and expected routinely every year.
This does not mean that strictly every region has to send only three teams. If the winning region of the previous Worlds, or even MSI, gets an extra slot, this should be a concrete rule. The goal of Worlds should be to send the best teams from the best leagues. Developing a system that allows audiences to expect a specific number of teams or representatives would be immensely helpful.
The future of Worlds
Riot Games has Worlds down to a science at this point. As one of the most popular annual events in all of esports each year, they clearly have done something right. Worlds every year seems to shatter viewership numbers of the previous year. Still, there is always room to improve.
Riot Games has shown some level of willingness to implement change into its events. MSI saw a format change for 2021, and the team is even considering double-elimination after VALORANT Champions decided on the format. The willingness to evolve and change with the times alongside viewer desires is what truly has allowed Worlds to reach the unimaginable heights that it has.
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