2020 League of Legends World Championship Play-In Preview

Esports are no longer the future, they are the present. The 2019 League of Legends World Championship drew more total viewers than this year’s Super Bowl, and this year’s final is expected to attract over 200 million unique viewers. Growth has been exponential for League of Legends over the last few years, especially among the key 18-29 demographic that advertisers covet, so if you aren’t paying attention, you are missing out. This year’s event will take place in Shanghai over the course of five weeks starting on Friday, September 25.

2020 League of Legends World Championship Play-In Betting Odds

Group A

MAD Lions -175
Team Liquid +140
Papara SuperMassive +1400
INTZ +2500
Legacy eSports +3300

The EU-NA battle has been intense over the last few years, as Western fans have had to find more achievable targets given the domination of China and Korea on the international stage. European teams have typically had the upper hand, leading to LEC representative MAD Lions being the odds-on favorite to win Group A and earn a spot in the main event.

MAD Lions were the second-best team in Europe during the regular season, but they had their fair share of woes down the stretch. They won just one of their seven playoff games in the double-elimination format, as opposing teams have caught on to Shadow’s jungle pathing and some of their weaknesses have been exploited. This team only has an average top laner in Orome, and mid laner Humanoid has some trouble on non-assassin champions.

That makes Liquid a nice bet at +140. While the LCS was clearly the worst major region in the world this year, Liquid was probably the best team in North America. They finished top of the Summer Split standings in the regular season, and their two playoff losses went all five games. This team is very experienced on the international stage with world champions CoreJJ and Impact alongside Broxah and Jensen.

Group B

LGD Gaming -5000
Unicorns of Love +1400
PSG Talon +3500
Rainbow7 +4000
V3 Esports +6500

If you want to know just how dominant China has been in League of Legends over the last two years, these odds are an indication. As the LPL representative, LGD Gaming are a massive favorite to win this group. LGD were sent to the Play-In Stage after losing to Suning Gaming in the regional finals, but they showed their class by hammering 2018 World Championship winners Invictus Gaming in two different series. LangX, Peanut, and Xiye are all veterans that have had rebound seasons on this team.

LGD’s biggest competition was supposed to be PSG Talon, but their star jungler and mid laner weren’t able to receive visas to Shanghai for Worlds. PSG had to bring on jungler Kongyue and mid laner Uniboy on loan from ahq last week, so the PCS champion is a huge wildcard at this point.

Instead, Unicorns of Love is the next most dangerous team in the group. This CIS winners have been some of the toughest teams to beat in international tournaments due to their unique playstyle, and we nearly saw this team make it to the main event last year after beating Clutch Gaming twice in the Group Stage before losing a five-game series to Splyce. You could do worse at 14-1.

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