League of Legends Worlds 2019: naming the best region after Worlds

1 of 4

Now that Worlds 2019 has concluded, it’s time to answer the question of which region has the best League of Legends players.

While the confetti from the League of Legends World Championship settles, it’s time to evaluate not just who the best team in the world is, but which region was the best. Although it’s tempting to instantly say “China” now that they hold back-to-back titles following FPX’s Worlds 2019 win, there are other factors that we can consider. So for this article, I’m going to determine which region had the best overall performance at the League of Legends World Championship and has earned the right to be called the top region.

I’ll be basing this determination on a few factors:

1. Number of teams the region sent and if they made it out of groups.

2. Overall record of the teams for each game played and winning percentage.

3. The placing position of every team per region while also being compared with how they were rated coming into the tournament to account for overachievement or underachievement.

4. Head-to-head record against other regions.

Europe/LEC

Teams representing: Splyce, G2, Fnatic.

Number of teams making group stage: 3

Number of teams advancing out of group stage: 3

Pre-Worlds rating and final placing:

G2 rated 3rd, placed 2nd
Splyce rated 11th, placed 7th
Fnatic rated 4th,placed 6th.

Head-to-head record by region:

1-1 Japan
2-0 Latin America/LLA
3-2 Russia/CIS
2-0 Vietnam
4-0 North America/LCS
3-1 LMS
9-8 Korea/LCK
3-9 China/LPL

Overall: 26-21 record, 55% winning percentage.

Europe had a strong Worlds on home turf. Splyce took full advantage of an easy group draw to make it to quarterfinals, while Fnatic survived a tough group to join Splyce in the bracket. G2 finished second in their group as well after losing to Griffin in a tiebreaker.

Regardless they had all three representatives finish in the top eight with Splyce and Fnatic falling in the quarterfinals, to SKT and FunPlus Phoenix respectively. G2 took out Damwon and SKT to make it to the finals before falling to FunPlus Phoenix Europe has a strong say in being the best region though thanks to these strong performances.

North America/LCS

Teams representing: Team Liquid, Cloud9, Clutch Gaming

Number of teams making group stage:3

Number of teams out advancing out of group stage: 0

Pre-Worlds rating and final placing:

Cloud9 rated 8th, placed 10th
Team Liquid rated 10th, placed 12th
Clutch Gaming rated, placed 15th.

Head to head record by region:

2-0 Oceania
1-2 Russia/CIS
3-0 Turkey
0-4 Europe/LEC
4-0 LMS
1-5 Korea/LCK
0-4 China/LPL

Overall:11-15, 42% winning percentage.

North America had a tough time at Worlds 2019. They came in ready to contend for titles and got shut down in groups. NA has a long way to go if they want to contend for international titles, but they can still claim to be closer to a title than pretty much any other region outside the top three of Europe, Korea and China.

Home/Editorials