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The groups for the first stage of the League of Legends World Championship have been drawn, with group D hosting many of the world’s best teams.
Group A sees Korean champions Rox Tigers face off against European champions G2 Esports, North America’s Counter Logic Gaming, who won the spring split earlier this year, and Albus Nox Luna from the CIS region.
Group B features Flash Wolves from the LMS, 2015 world champions SK Telecom T1 from Korea, Team I May from China and Cloud9, who are one of the most popular teams in the NA LCS.
Group C is headlined by the best team from China in the form of Edward Gaming, with AHQ e-Sports Club from the LMS joining them, both of these teams made the quarter finals at worlds last year. Rounding out group C is H2K Gaming from the EU LCS and one of the international wildcard teams INTZ e-Sports.
Group D has been picked by many as the most difficult group, as it features four teams from the four best regions in the world. The most recognisable name is Team SoloMid from North America, which has one of the biggest followings of any eSports organisation. Joining TSM is Royal Never Give Up, who have been battling with Edward Gaming all year for the title of the best Chinese team. Samsung Galaxy may be the third seed from Korea but they can easily topple any one else in the group and finally there is Splyce, the third seed from Europe who ended the regular season incredibly well.
The group stages kick off on Thursday September 29th, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the quarter finals. The single elimination bracket will then decide the two finalists who will meet on October 29th in Los Angeles.
