TL;DR:

• Worlds 2017 will be a 24 team-tournament in China with teams from all 13 LoL professional leagues participating across multiple stages.
• The Worlds 2017 tournament format has been expanded to include a Play-In Stage before the Group Stage.
• LMS will now be awarded a 3rd regional seed for Worlds 2017.
• Some regions will be able to earn a second seed for Worlds 2017 based on MSI 2017 results.
• The three Korean seeds will not participate in the Play-In Stage and will be auto-seeded into the Group Stage.

As we announced today, the 2017 League of Legends World Championship is heading to China from September 23 – November 4. Here’s a detailed breakdown of updated teams, regional seeds, and format for Worlds 2017.

Teams

During Worlds 2017, 24 teams will participate across multiple stages at the 2017 World Championship from the following regions:

• Brazil (BR)
• China (CN)
• Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
• Europe (EU)
• Japan (JPN)
• Korea (KR)
• Latin America – North (LAN)
• Latin America – South (LAS)
• North America (NA)
• Oceania (OCE)
• Southeast Asia (SEA)
• Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau (LMS)
• Turkey (TUR)

Regional Seeds

There are a couple of changes to the regional seeds including:

3 seeds for LMS: LMS will now be awarded 3 regional seeds for Worlds 2017 instead of the 2 regional seeds they had for Worlds 2016. The LMS was originally created as a division from GPL, which separated one region into two, and forced a similar split of the Worlds seeds. Since its 2015 creation, however, the LMS has been a consistently strong region, and so is being awarded with another seed to bring them to an equivalent number with CN, EU, KR, and NA.

Korea will not participate in the Play-In: Korea, as the region that has performed the best overall throughout 2015 and 2016, will have all 3 of its seeds bypass the Worlds 2017 Play-In Stage and start in the Group Stage.

MSI results will continue to impact Worlds 2017:  As with last year, some regional seeds placement at Worlds 2017 can be impacted by the MSI 2017 results, but differently from 2016. 

Some regions can gain a second seed from MSI 2017 results: The highest ranking region at MSI of BR, CIS, JPN, LAN, LAS, OCE, SEA, and TUR gains an additional seed at Worlds. The #1 seed of that region will be auto-seeded to Groups and the #2 seed will start from the Play-in. In the case that two of these regions earn identical results at MSI 2017, the extra seed will go to the region who advanced the furthest in Worlds/IWCQ in 2016.

While their leagues are continuing to mature and their teams earn better international results each year, we didn’t feel it appropriate to award a guaranteed 2nd seed to any of these regions, but performance in 2017 will be a major factor in determining seeds for 2018.

Format

As with MSI 2017, the World Championship will now have a Play-In Stage before the Group Stage.

For more information about Worlds 2017, head over to our event site and stay tuned to Lolesports for updates.

Chris “RiotChopper” Hopper is one of the International Esports and League Operations Leads. His team is focused on the global development and operations of competitive League of Legends. RiotChopper is a sports fanatic who wins (almost) every Fantasy League among the Riot esports team and always cheers for his alma mater, Duke. Questions or want to chat about Magic: The Gathering? Reach out to him on Twitter via @RiotChopper.

Derrick “Riot FearGorm” Asiedu is part of our International Esports and League Operations Team. He works on the global development and operations of competitive League of Legends. He splits his time between global policy execution and implementation and supporting international events including MSI and Worlds. Riot FearGorm is jungler main and if possible, he would only play Hecarim. He used to have the most Hecarim games in the world. You can find him on Twitter at @FearGorm.