LoL Worlds 2021: Wild Card Teams and Overall Rankings

September 30, 2021
By: Ryan Morgan

The League of Legends Worlds Championship starts October 5th. Twenty-four teams will compete for the biggest trophy in esports. For RPS that means a month of DFS contests with bigger prizes. To preview the event let’s take a closer look at the wild card region teams that could be the key to takedowns in the early stages. The Captain and I also give our pre-event rankings of all the competing teams.

GROUP A

Galatasaray Esports, GS (Turkey TCL)

Carry top-laner crazy (2020 RW)

Flexible mid-laner Bolulu (2020 Supermassive)

Dominated TCL summer split 21-4 overall record, dropping only 1 game in playoffs

Historical – Generally teams from Turkey are teams to target in DFS due to them being fairly aggressive, and usually contend to get out of play-ins

KPW – 18.6 DPL- 21

Outlook- In a pretty stacked group B for play-ins. I think they will be top 4 in group B, but won’t go further than BO5s in play-ins.

Infinity Esports, INF (Latin America LAA)

The same team we saw at MSI and they were very bad

17-6 overall in the season, won lone playoff series 3-2

Historical – LAA teams aren’t good and that won’t change here

KPW – 18.1 DPL- 12.5

Outlook- They drew an absolutely stars and scrubs group with the 2 of the 3 best play in teams and then they were joined by the other 2 worst teams in the tourney. The only way they don’t get last is if another team is just simply worse than them, but if they don’t get last in the group they will lose 3-0 in the BO5 stage

Peace Esports, PCE (Oceania PCO)

Playing with a sub in the top lane Vizicsacsi (former Splyce top laner, hasn’t played competitively since then)

22-13 overall in the season, 12-2 in playoffs, huge run in playoffs

Historical – Oceanic teams are awful and that won’t change here

KPW – 18.7 KPW DPL- 16.8

Outlook- This team is going to be horrible, they made a miracle run in the playoffs to make it after going 10-11 in the regular split, I think they are going to finish last in their group)

Detonation FocusMe, DFM (Japan LJL)

The same team as MSI where they performed pretty well, a veteran team that has a hyped mid-lane in Aria. One difference from MSI is their Support who was unable to join the team until their import slot opened up. Gaeng is a strong Korean support and a huge upgrade for them.

20-6 overall in the season, 8-3 in playoffs

Historical – Japanese teams are usually very very slow-paced teams and games you want to avoid in DFS, the DFM team we saw at MSI is probably the best LJL team ever and they return here.

KPW- 18.7 DPL- 16.7 DPL

Outlook- Drawn into a hard group B, I think they will be contending like everyone else to get top 4 and expect them to make it to the BO5 stage as either the 3 or 4 seed

Unicorns of Love, UOL (Russia CIS)

New ADC from when we last saw them at MSI, the team has incredibly deep champion pools and are very creative in the draft which I like

19-9 overall in the season, 7-7 in playoffs

Historical – CIS teams (Unicorns of Love) are a staple at Worlds play-ins, they made the main event for the first time last year. They were awful at MSI this year, but they were dealing with ADC issues throughout the spring split and that seemed to translate over to MSI. UOL have been EXTREMELY friendly DFS teams.

KPW- 19.25 DPL- 22

Outlook- Just like everyone else in group B they will be competing for one of those top 4 spots and it could go any way. They are now in a more creative meta unlike the one we saw at MSI which is great for their jungler Ahahacik who is one of the main carries for them

Beyond Gaming, BYG (PCS)

The goodest of boys Doggo is back on his main team who we saw at MSI and he is an absolute stud

23-10 overall, 8-6 in playoffs (only team to beat PSG the entire year)

Historical – first year in the org’s history, usually the top 2 PCS teams are strong

KPW – 19.5 DPL- 18

Outlook- I expect this team to be very solid and will finish top 2 in the play-ins and will be a good team to target for DFS as the teams in their groups have good DPLs combined with Beyonds great KPW

RED Canids, RED (Brazil CBLOL)

RED was the 6th seed coming into the Playoffs and had a surprise run to the finals beating big favorites FLA and VRX and beating the other Cinderella story Rensga in the finals. They dropped 2 games the whole playoffs. Titan is their hyper-carry ADC and Guigo is a carry top-laner who is second in DMG% on the team but also the lowest KP%.

10-8 overall, 9-2 in the playoffs (went 3-0,3-1,3-1)

Historical – First year at Worlds, was in Brazil 2nd division last year and won that split. 4 of the players have been together for 2 years. Brazilian teams have been garbage at international events.

KPW – 22, DPL – 18.4

Outlook – RED will be one of, if not the worst team at the tournament. Like most CBLOL teams they have poor macro and love to fight constantly. They are a good early game team but poor late and will look to force things early. Great DFS team with a .97 kill pace in all their games is one of the highest at the event. They have the most top-heavy group with HLE and LNG. They can beat PCE and INF but they won’t beat the LPL or LCK reps and at best will be 3rd in the group knocking out in play-ins.

OVERALL TEAM RANKINGS

Kevin Rankings