League of Legends Worlds: play-in teams have unexpected success

Historical play-in results

Now that we have the results for the current Worlds play-ins teams let’s discuss a little bit about how this year’s group of teams compares to the past World Championships. That way we can see if there’s a trend into whether it’s better to come through play-ins or skip them.

2014 seems to the genesis of the play-in round with the International Wildcard Tournament. During that season Dark Passage and Kabum! earned spots in the group stage with wins at regional sites. Neither of them fared well with Kabum! managing a 1-5 record and Dark Passage an 0-6 mark, finishing last in their groups.

2015 also had an International Wildcard Tournament with Pain Gaming and Bangkok Titans making it to the main event group stage. The Titans fell hard going 0-6 and finished last in their group while failing to advance to the bracket stage. Pain Gaming fared slightly better going 2-4, but tied for the third/fourth place spot in their group and also missed out on the bracket stage.

2016 marked another year of International Wildcard Qualifier play, but instead of two separate tournaments, it became one eight-team round with the top two squads advancing. Intz and Albus NoX Luna survived and advanced to the 2016 World Championships group stage.

Intz continued the trend of play-in teams falling out in of groups by going 1-5, however, Albus NoX Luna would buck this trend. A 4-2 record tied them for first place in their group with Rox Tigers, who then defeated them in a tiebreaker. H2K ended the best run to date from a play-in team in the quarterfinals via 3-0 sweep, but mark it as a victory for play-in teams for advancing that far when they failed to do so previously.

2017 marked the beginning of the system as we know it today with play-in groups and four teams advancing to the group stage of the Worlds main event. Cloud9, Fnatic,1907 Fenerbahçe, and Team WE were the first four to advance to a Worlds group stage under this format. 1907 Fenerbahçe went 0-6 to finish in last in their group, but they were the clear outlier.

Cloud9 went 3-3 to finish second in their group. Fnatic went 2-4 and then won a tiebreaker to advance, while Team WE went 5-1 and won their group. This allowed three of the four play-in teams to make it to quarterfinals.

In quarterfinals, Fnatic was defeated by RNG, while Team WE defeated Cloud9 3-2. Samsung Galaxy would then eliminate Team WE 3-1 in the semi-finals. By making the semi-finals Team WE set the bar for performance by a play-in team.

2018 had Cloud9, EDward Gaming, G2, and G-Rex earn spots in the main event through play-ins. For the second year in a row three of the four play-in teams were able to make it out of groups with G2, Cloud9 and EDward Gaming doing so, while G-Rex pulled out the goose egg in their group and finished last.

EDward Gaming was the first team to fall as they did so to Fnatic 3-1 in the quarterfinals. G2 and Cloud9 made it a round farther before losing in the semi-finals to Invictus Gaming and Fnatic. Yet with two play-in teams making it to the semifinals, there was an improvement over 2017 where only one play-in team made it that far. 2018 marked the best year for play-in teams as a result of this.

So in the five years of play-in competition prior to this year,14 teams have advanced to the main group. From there seven teams have failed to get out of groups, including four with winless records. Four teams have made it to the quarterfinals and three have made it to the semi-finals.

Overall in that five-year span, it’s been a 50/50 split of getting out of groups, or not for these teams. Though the two-year trend of having six out of eight teams make it out of groups should be an encouraging sign if you’re a play-in team.

Based on what happened with the 2019 results it seems like the trend is continuing.  Nine out of 16 have failed to make it out of groups and six teams have now made it to the quarterfinals. While it was a step back from 2018 when play-in teams made the semifinals, it wasn’t that bad a year for play-in teams. We just didn’t see a play-in team take the next step and reach the finals, or win it all.

Regardless of their results, it’s fun to watch these underdogs. It gives teams a chance to surprise people and advance further then you think. If the current trend of teams making it a round further continues we could have a champion come out of play-ins in just a couple of years.