League of Legends: winners and losers from the 2019 World Championship group draw

With the 2019 League of Legends World Championship groups set, which teams got good draws and which got bad ones?

The groups are set for the 2019 World Championship, as all 24 League of Legends teams have been sorted into their groups for the play-ins and groups. The play-in groups shook out as follows:

"Group A: Clutch, UoL, MammothGroup B: Splyce, Isurus, DFMGroup C: HKA, Lowkey, MEGAGroup D: Damwon, Royal Youth, Flamengo"

For the main event, the group draws are as follows (with the four winners of the knock-out round from the play-ins rounding out each group):

"Group A: G2, Griffin, C9Group B: FPX, J Team, GAMGroup C: SKT, Fnatic, RNGGroup D: Liquid, AHQ, IG"

Which teams got the best and worst out of these draws?

Winners

Damwon

They were a favorite to get out of play-ins, to begin with, but they will be almost assured to get out now. They get an easy group against Flamengo and Royal Youth, meaning they’ve assured a top seed and an easy match-up in knock-outs. Better yet, when they get out they are going to get drawn into either Group B or D, the two easiest groups on the main stage.

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Royal Youth/Flamengo

For the pure fact that whichever team comes in second doesn’t have to play Damwon in the knockout stage means they have a great shot to make it to the main event. Of course, they’ll still be a lower seed, but at least they might have a shot.

Unicorns of Love

Of all the non-group one teams in the play-ins, UoL probably is the team with the best shot to win their group given the low quality of competition in their group relative to how good they could be. Great shot to get the one seed and avoid those best teams.

China

If you’re looking at them as a region, China got probably the best draw of any region. FPX got a gimme draw because they should wax the two teams already in their group regardless of who else gets drawn into Group B and IG got a group that they could easily make it out of. Yes, RNG got a harder draw with SKT and Fnatic, but most pundits would think they can beat Fnatic.

Team Liquid

No excuse boys. TL got the dream draw, getting China’s worst team along with a team from the LMS (probably the weakest major region). If Liquid cannot get out of Group D (D must stand for Dream) I expect there will be huge changes to the org going forward.

Losers

Clutch

Just as UoL is the projected second seed in the play-in groups, Clutch will be the most tested projected one seed. If they’re not careful, this hot team could cool down and end up in a very tough match in the knockout rounds.

Korea

Although they might be the favorites in their groups, no Korean team other than potentially Damwon got a good draw in the main stage. SKT will have to face the second-best teams in Europe and China (the two other best regions in the World) while Griffin drew G2 in their group. They’ll be tested early.

Cloud9

RIP Cloud9. Getting put in a group with a top 4 team in the world and a team who’s talent should have made them a favorite to win the whole tournament is basically game over. Watching Sneaky/Zeyzal go against Viper/Lehends and Perkz/Mikyx is going to be like watching someone try to win a NASCAR race on a unicycle.

Fnatic

Someone had to get put into the Group of Death and unfortunately, Group C stands for “can you believe how unlucky Fnatic got?” Yes, I think Fnatic is probably slightly better than RNG but they’re also in a group with SKT. It is going to be a dogfight for a team that probably had aspirations of making at least semifinals to just get out of groups.