LoL Worlds Play-In claims its LCS victim as Swiss Stage brackets are set

Four down, fifteen to go—but the journey to determine this year’s League of Legends world champion has only just began. Still, even in the Play-In Stage, we’ve seen one of the big regions fall short of expectations.

100 Thieves’ straightforward loss to PSG Talon in the lower bracket final consigned them to an early exit at Worlds. With the Swiss Stage first-round matchups determined, we now know that T1 will begin their title defense with a match against Top Esports, while LEC fans might reasonably hope for an early success with G2’s draw against paiN Gaming and Fnatic’s matchup with Dplus KIA—but supporters of MAD Lions KOI likely drew a sharp intake of breath seeing LPL Summer winners Bilibili Gaming as their first-round opposition. In an interview with Dot Esports, Supa expressed hope that they would meet a North American side to get revenge, but it looks like he’ll have to wait for a chance to do so.