Four of the five main region representatives (all save Europe’s MAD Lions) made it out of the multiple-day crucible in Mexico City that served as the play-in stage for the 2022 League of Legends World Championship. DRX from South Korea, Royal Never Give Up from China, Fnatic from Europe, and Evil Geniuses from North America will join the 12 already qualified teams for the Worlds 2022 group stage, which will be held at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City beginning on Thursday, October 7 at 4pm CT.
The Rift’s standalone narrative is another interesting option. The meta has settled down to some extent, with just one or two carry junglers making an appearance, and Maokai and Aatrox establishing themselves as the flex and power picks of the play-ins, respectively. Teams from lower-tier regions sometimes resort to using off-meta champions in games against high-tier teams, like as the infamous Zac mid or Teemo and Zilean top versus Saigon Buffalo and Isurus Gaming’s Aatrox. Teams with global champions, such as DWG KIA’s Canyon, who won the 2020 championship on carry junglers, or top laners, such as 369 of JD Gaming and Broken Blade of G2 Esports, may surprise some people as the tournament proceeds.
The group stage of the 2022 League of Legends World Championship has begun, and we’ve got the results.
Group A
| Place | Team | W | L |
| 1 | x – EDward Gaming | 4 | 1 |
| 2 | x – T1 | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | e – Fnatic | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | e – Cloud9 | 1 | 4 |
Group B
| Place | Team | W | L |
| 1 | JD Gaming | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | DWG KIA | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | G2 Esports | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | Evil Geniuses | 0 | 3 |
Group C
| Place | Team | W | L |
| 1 | Rogue | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | DRX | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | Top Esports | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | GAM Esports | 0 | 3 |
Group D
| Place | Team | W | L |
| 1 | Royal Never Give Up | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | Gen.G | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | CTBC Flying Oyster | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | 100 Thieves | 0 | 3 |
This format should be quite recognizable to anyone who has watched any international League of Legends, notably Worlds. In the preliminary round, 16 teams are divided into four groups of four. No two teams from the same area or pool can be placed in the same group. Over the course of two weekends in New York City, each team will play the other three teams twice, once on the blue side and once on the red side.
After that, the top two teams from each group will be randomly assigned to opposite sides of a best-of-five knockout bracket, with the group winners playing the runners-up and the runners-up playing the group losers.
