Rumors that have been going around for a while become reality as Riot Games revealed in their latest statement that both Vietnamese teams won’t be able to attend Words 2021 due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Following the news, LEC’s third seed, Rogue, was moved to the Group Stage.
“We’re in Groups for Worlds 2021. We take those – We’re sad VCS teams cannot participate, but will give our all to make them and EU proud!” Rogue said on their official Twitter account.
After finishing the LEC Summer 2021 regular season as the first place and taking down Misfits in the first round of the LEC Summer Playoffs 2021, Rogue became the first European team to attend Worlds 2021. However, their losses against MAD Lions and Fnatic dropped them to third seed. Three LEC representatives, MAD Lions, Fnatic, and Rogue, will start Worlds 2021 from the group stage.
The COVID-19 affected Vietnamese teams the most. Since the pandemic grew worse, the region couldn’t attend three international League of Legends tournaments. First, they missed Worlds 2020, then MSI 2021, and now Worlds 2021. The region was supposed to send two teams to the event, one of them starting from the group stage.
With the unfortunate event, Riot Games returned to the previous format for Worlds 2021 since there will be 22 teams. Ten teams will take place in the Play-Ins stage and the rest of the teams will start from the group stage. You can check the whole format from here.
All participants for Worlds 2021:
- Edward Gaming – China
- FunPlus Phoenix – China
- Royal Never Give Up – China
- LNG Esports – China
- DWG KIA – Korea
- Gen.G – Korea
- T1 – Korea
- Hanwha Life Esports – Korea
- MAD Lions – Europe
- Fnatic – Europe
- Rogue – Europe
- 100 Thieves – North America
- Team Liquid – North America
- Cloud 9 – North America
- PSG Talon – Pacific
- Beyond Gaming – Pacific
- Unicorns of Love – CIS
- Infinity Esports – Latin America
- Galatasaray Esports – Turkey
- RED Canids – Brazil
- DetonatioN FocusMe – Japan
- PEACE – Oceania
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