After four back-and-forth battles, China’s Suning Gaming overcame all expectations and took down their own region’s second seed, JD Gaming, today at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship.
Suning came into this matchup having shown plenty of promise in the group stage. They finished with a 4-2 record with close losses to Team Liquid and G2 Esports. Even though they have a few players who are new to the Worlds stage, they showed a level of poise that put the global League scene on notice.
Suning’s flashy, aggressive style has impressed numerous fans, but many people still expected JDG to win this matchup, especially after they took a game off of Korea’s first seed, DAMWON Gaming.
Today’s series ended up becoming a classic LPL slugfest with each team jumping into multiple skirmishes as soon as possible. Suning and JD traded blows throughout each of their matches, but in games two to four, it felt like JDG began to make a lot of unforced errors in their play.
The 2020 Season World Championship (Worlds 2020) is the conclusion of the 2020 League of Legends esports season. The tournament is held in Shanghai, China. The tournament began with Play-In stages on Sep. 25 and will conclude on Oct. 31 with the finals between two teams which would be arguably the best in the World.
The Main-Event stage began on Oct. 3 and will feature the best 16 teams in the World. 8 out of them will advance to the knockout stage where they’ll have a shot at advancing forward.
The format for qualification in North America and Europe changed this year, with teams only being able to qualify directly through the LCS Summer Playoffs and LEC Summer Playoffs, respectively. Seeding Changes: China and Europe both receive one extra seed for a total of four, while the PCS is given two seeds, compared to a combined four for the LMS and Southeast Asia in 2019.
In summary, one main event seed previously held by the LMS is given to Europe, and the play-in seed previously held by Southeast Asia is given to China.
Due to Vietnamese teams being unable to participate, the Play-In format was heavily adjusted, and the region’s Main Event spot was given to Korea’s 3rd seed. If Vietnamese teams had been allowed to participate, Team Flash would have played in the Main Event and GAM Esports would have played in the Play-In.
Stay tuned for more World Championship coverage as the 22 teams battle around the World for a title of a World Champion and a share of more than one million prize money.
