Worlds 2020 – The 4 Teams That Survived the Play-In Stage

Before Worlds 2020 can actually begin, the tournament had to have a Play-In Stage to decide which of the 10 teams that had not yet qualified for the Group Stage were going to take part in it. Only 4 teams survived the two Play-In rounds and in this article, I will take a brief look at what they had to go through to qualify.

Worlds 2020 Play-In Participants

Worlds 2020 Play-In featured 10 teams. These teams were divided into two groups of 5. In each group, the winner advanced to the Group Stage while the next 3 teams advanced to the second round of the Play-In. But they did this based on their results. The 2^nd place teams had to win just one match to qualify. The 3^rd and 4^th place teams had to win two of them.

Play-In Round 1 Results

These were the two groups of the Worlds 2020 Play-In Stage Round 1:

Group A

• 1^st: Team Liquid: 3 V – 1 D
• 2^nd: Legacy Esports: 3 V – 1 D
• 3^rd: SuperMassive Esports: 2 V – 2 D
• 4^th: MAD Lions: 1 V – 3 D
• 5^th: INTZ: 1 V – 3 D

Group B

• 1^st: PSG Talon: 3 V – 1 D
• 2^nd: Unicorns of Love: 3 V – 1 D
• 3^rd: Rainbow7: 2 V – 2 D
• 4^th: LGD Gaming: 1 V – 3 D
• 5^th: V3 Esports: 1 V – 3 D

Based on these results, Team Liquid and PSG Talon managed to qualify directly. The last team in each group was eliminated. The remaining 6 teams played in the second Play-In round.

Play-In Round 2 Results

The second round had two Semifinals and two Finals. SuperMassive Esports defeated MAD Lions (3 – 2) while LGD Gaming defeated Rainbow7 (3 – 0). In the Finals, Unicorns of Love defeated SuperMassive Esports (3 – 0) while LGD Gaming defeated Legacy Esports (3 – 0). These results were extremely close to what the community had predicted prior to the start of the tournament. In the Group Stage, LGD Gaming did far worse than people expected. But it seems that just a few days were enough for them to adjust to the other competitors and find a winning strategy.

The 4 Winners

So, after a week of competition, Team Liquid, PSG Talon, LGD Gaming, and Unicorns of Love will join the other 12 teams in the Group Stage of Worlds 2020. The final groups look like this:

Group A

• G2 Esports
• Machi Esports
• Suning
• Team Liquid

Group B

• DAMWON Gaming
• JD Gaming
• PSG Talon
• Rogue

Group C

• Fnatic
• G Esports
• LGD Gaming
• Team SoloMid

Group D

• DragonX
• FlyQuest
• Top Esports
• Unicorns of Love

 

Photo credit: Riot Games