Worlds 2017 Play-in Stage: Schedule, streams and results

For the first time in its history, the League of Legends World Championship will host teams from all 13 professional leagues in 2017. While most of them won’t make the Group Stage of the tournament, the addition of the Play-in Stage will give some of the smaller regions a chance to impress their fellow teams and gain some international fans.

In case you need a refresher, here are all four groups and their teams:

Riot Games

Riot Games

Riot Games

Riot Games

While each of the groups has plenty of talent and should make for some exciting games, Group A stands head and shoulders above the rest. Before the draw began, many held the belief that the two strongest teams from smaller regions would be Gambit Gaming and Lyon Gaming. Meanwhile, China has consistently been a top three region since 2013, and their third seed Team WE is no slouch.

Meanwhile, North American fans will want to keep close tabs on Group B, where Cloud9 should have a fairly straightforward path out. While Team One Esports and Dire Wolves are far from bad teams, Cloud9’s experience should help them advance from the group as the number one seed.

The Format

During the first portion of the Play-in all 12 teams that are competing are sorted into four groups of three. Each team plays the other two in their group twice and the two teams with the most wins after that advance to Round Two. There, the teams will be randomly sorted with number one seeds from one group playing the number two seed from another in a best-of-five series. The winners of those series will advance out of Play-in and into the Worlds Group Stage.

If that doesn’t quite make sense, have no fear, Riot has also provided a helpful graphic to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Riot Games

Schedule

Group Stage

Saturday, September 23

• Team WE vs Lyon Gaming
• Cloud9 vs Team One Esports
• Gambit Esports vs Lyon Gaming
• Dire Wolves vs Cloud9
• Gambit Esports vs Team WE
• Dire Wolves vs Team One Esports

Sunday, September 24

• Team One Esports vs Cloud9
• Lyon Gaming vs Team WE
• Cloud9 vs Dire Wolves
• Lyon Gaming vs Gambit Esports
• Team One vs Dire Wolves
• Team WE vs Gambit Esports
• Dire Wolves vs Team One

Monday, September 25

• Young Generation vs Kaos Latin Gamers
• Rampage vs Hong Kong Attitude
• Fnatic vs Kaos Latin Gamers
• Hong Kong Attitude vs 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor
• Young Generation vs Fnatic
• Rampage vs 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor

Tuesday, September 26

• Hong Kong Attitude vs Rampage
• Kaos Latin Gamers vs Young Generation
• 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor vs Rampage
• Kaos Latin Gamers vs Fnatic
• 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor vs Hong Kong Attitude
• Fnatic vs Young Generation
• Hong Kong Attitude vs 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor

Knockout Stage

Wednesday, September 27

• Cloud9 vs Lyon Gaming, 11:00 p.m. ET
• Fnatic vs Hong Kong Attitude, 3:00 a.m. ET

Thursday, September 28

• 1907 Fenerbahçe Espor vs Team oNe Esports, 11:00 p.m. ET
• Team WE vs Young Generation, 3:00 a.m. ET