The 2021 World Championship is just around the corner, and at this moment, the League of Legends community is buzzing across nearly all major social media forums worldwide. Information about the Championship, the teams, the players… including all the side news is being updated regularly, making everyone eagerly await the day when the largest Esports event for the League of Legends community officially takes place.
Recently, the schedule for the play-in stage and the Main Event has been sent out for fans to follow.
Notably, the opening match of the play-in stage will feature a showdown between Hanwha Life Esports and LNG Esports. This is expected to be one of the most significant matches in this round as Chovy and Tarzan – two “former members” of Griffin will face off for a spot in the group stage. While Chovy is the “golden backbone” of LCK in general and HLE specifically, Tarzan’s fantastic performance at LNG has also been proven, especially during the LPL Summer 2021 playoffs and the regional qualifiers. Moreover, both teams boast players who can make a significant impact when at their peak performance, such as Deft, icon, and Ale… so even though it’s the first match of the play-in stage, it is likely to have a decisive factor in this group.
HLE vs LNG (18:00 – 05/10/2021)
As for the Main Event of the 2021 World Championship, the very first match of the tournament will be the highly anticipated clash between the two teams that won the World Championship consecutively: FunPlus Phoenix (2019) and DWG KIA (2020).
The match between FPX and DK will showcase high-level play, featuring exceptionally talented players in their positions and a match filled with history. Nuguri (FPX) and Khan (DK) will meet their former teams. While the “Great Khan” aims to prove how wrong LPL fans and FPX were in condemning him during his time playing for Phoenix, Nuguri also wants to demonstrate that he remains the top lane player today and the reigning World Champion. Additionally, many believe that the encounter between the experience and skill of Doinb and the youth and talent of ShowMaker will be the deciding factor for both teams. Furthermore, while Canyon has a slight edge, he must not underestimate his counterpart Tian from FPX, especially since Tian often makes pivotal engagement plays. On the bottom lane, the competition between the duo Lwx – Crisp and Ghost – BeryL could also be a surprising deciding factor.
Another factor making the match between DK and FPX noteworthy is that both teams have almost identical gameplay styles and player quality. With both focusing primarily on the top side, fans can expect to witness many skirmishes in the top half of the map during the laning phase and contests for major objectives like towers and Heralds.
FPX – DK (18:00 – 11/10/2021 – Day 1 of the 2021 World Championship)
There are still about 10 days until the first matches of the play-in stage officially take place, but after the schedule has been released, the League of Legends community is incredibly excited, and the teams and players themselves will need to do their utmost to deliver the most thrilling performances to bring home the highest achievements for their teams.