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Despite North America’s hopes being dashed, the 2019 World Championship continues on to the playoff stage. While there aren’t any teams representing the LCS, Korea’s LCK has three teams, along with Europe’s LEC, while China’s LPL has two teams that round out the rest of the competitors. The quarterfinals will pit all eight of these teams against each other, but won’t have any teams from the same region head to head just yet.
The first game of the weekend will be Griffin versus Invictus Gaming. Griffin were one of the most impressive teams in the tournament during the Group Stage thanks in large part to some incredible performances by the jungler, Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong. Meanwhile, Invictus Gaming entered Worlds after a disappointing Summer Split, but it seems the team used the Group Stage to help it get over its slump and IG seems back to the form that helped them win worlds last year.
Saturday’s second match up is FunPlus Phoenix going up against Fnatic in a series that’s almost completely unpredictable. FunPlus Phoenix, the number one seed out of China’s LPL, looked rough in the easiest group of the tournament, dropping more games than any other top-of-group finisher. Fnatic managed to claw their way out of Group C, one of the most difficult groups in Worlds history, with victories over SK telecom T1 and Royal Never Give Up, but there’s no telling if the European team can keep up that impressive performance.
The first match on Sunday will have SK telecom T1 going up against Splyce. This is likely the most one sided of the quarterfinals contests, but it still has some room for surprises. SKT look like one of the better teams in the tournament — and they’ve always got Faker — but the team’s loss to Fnatic during the Group Stage proves that SKT isn’t invulnerable. Splyce completed a fairly unlikely run through Group B, so if it can keep the surprises coming, maybe this series could have an unexpected result.
Finally there’s Damwon Gaming and G2 Esports. Damwon look the weakest of any Korean side, but still finished out the second half of its group undefeated. G2 Esports are a team that many considered to be the strongest at Worlds before the tournament, but with two straight losses to Griffin to end the group, G2 isn’t looking quite so dominant anymore.
Each of the quarterfinal matches for the League of Legends 2019 World Championship will be shown live on Riot’s Youtube and Twitch channels. If you want to claim missions rewards for watching the matches you’ll need to log in and watch on watch.lolesports.com, where you’ll also be able to access Pro View if you subscribe.
Worlds 2019 Quarterfinal Schedule
Saturday, Oct. 26
- Griffin vs Invictus Gaming — 4 a.m. ET
- FunPlus Phoenix vs Fnatic — 9 a.m. ET
Sunday, Oct. 27
- SK telecom T1 vs Splyce — 5 a.m. ET
- Damwon Gaming vs G2 Esports — 10 a.m. ET