League of Legends Worlds qualifying 2016: How it works and the standings

Every year, the biggest event on the League of Legends calendar is Worlds, where 16 of the best teams from around the world compete in a month-long tournament for money, pride and a sweet-ass trophy.

This year, Worlds will take place in North America, with games in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. The finals will take place at Staples Center in LA. This is the sixth-ever Worlds, and the third to take place in North America (Season 2 and Season 3 also did).

The qualifying process for Worlds takes all season long, and is just about to come to a close in most regions of the country. Most regions split the larger season (currently Season 6) into two smaller seasons — Summer and Spring — each of which have their own regular season, playoffs and champion. The result of both of those splits help determine which teams from each region qualify for Worlds.

Most premier regions bring three teams to Worlds, qualified in the following way: the Summer Split champion (the second of the two half seasons) gets an automatic spot as the No. 1 team. The second spot goes to the team with the most combined Championship Points from the two splits combined. The third spot goes to the team that wins the regional gauntlet, a tournament that pits the next four teams in Championship Points against each other.

Championship Points are calculated slightly differently for each region, but the main thing to take away is this: it is important to do well in Spring, but more important to do well in Summer.

So let’s break it down, region by region. This story will be updated as more teams qualify.

Riot Games

Korea (LCK)

How many qualify: Three

How: Summer champion (No. 1), Championship Points (No. 2), Regional Finals (No. 3)

Who’s in: ROX Tigers, SK Telecom T1, Samsung Galaxy

Championship points standings: 1. ROX Tigers AQ 2. SK Telecom T1 160 3. KT Rolster 140 4. Samsung Galaxy 50, 5. Afreeca Freecs 30 6. Jin Air 30

Who’s out: KT Rolster, Afreeca Freecs, Jin Air Green Wings, Longzhu Gaming, CJ Entus, MVP, ESC Ever

China (LPL)

How many qualify: Three

How: Summer champion (No. 1), Championship Points (No. 2), Regional Finals (No. 3)

Who’s in: EDward Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, I May

Championship points standings: 1. Royal Never Give Up 600 2. EDward Gaming 500 3. I May 200 4. Team WE 190 5. Snake eSports 130 6. Vici Gaming 130

Who’s out: Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, Newbee, Saint Gaming, Oh My God, Game Talents, Snake eSports, Team WE, Vici Gaming

Riot Games

North America (NA LCS)

How many qualify: Three

How: Summer champion (No. 1), Championship Points (No. 2), Regional Finals (No. 3)

Who’s in: Team SoloMid, Counter Logic Gaming, Cloud9

Championship points standings: 1. TSM 160 2. CLG 130 3. Cloud9 100 4. Immortals 90 5. Team Liquid 50 6. Team Envy 20

Who’s out: Immortals, Team Envy, Team Liquid, Apex Gaming, Phoenix1, NRG Esports, Echo Fox

Europe (EU LCS)

How many qualify: Three

How: Summer champion (No. 1), Championship Points (No. 2), Regional Finals (No. 3)

Who’s in: G2 Esports, H2K, Splyce

Championship points standings: 1. G2 180 2. H2K 100 3. Splyce 90 4. Fnatic 70 5. UOL 50 6. Giants 20

Who’s out: Unicorns of Love, Fnatic, Giants Gaming, Vitality, Origen, FC Schalke 04, Team ROCCAT

Riot Games

Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau (LMS)

How many qualify: Two

How: Summer champion (No. 1), Regional finals (No. 2)

Who’s in: Flash Wolves, ahq e-Sports club

Who’s out: J Team, Machi E-SportsHong Kong Esports, Midnight Sun Esports, eXtreme Gamers, Team Mist

Wild card regions (IWC)

How many qualify: Two

How: International wildcard qualifiers

Who’s in: Brazil’s INTZ e-sports, Russia's Albux NoX Luna

Who’s out: Too many to list, tbh