The League of Legends World Championship group draw concluded Monday morning after setting up two stacked groups for both North America and Europe.
The North American contingent Cloud 9 was slotted against European powerhouse G2 Esports and South Korean Griffin in Group A. SK Telecom T1, Fnatic and Royal Never Give Up comprise a tough Group C, while Team Liquid joins defending world champion Invictus Gaming and AHQ Esports Club in Group D.
FunPlus Phoenix, one of China's best squads this year, has a more favorable draw in Group B and will square off against J Team from the LMS and Gigabyte Marines from Vietnam.
Reactions and memes have flooded social media since the draw.
You can't make this up!
Catch @CarlosR's reactions to the full Worlds' draw. pic.twitter.com/PM3vSyxOyW
— G2 Esports (@G2esports) September 23, 2019
please say sike
— Cloud9 (@Cloud9) September 23, 2019
The tournament begins Oct. 2 with the play-in stage in Berlin before moving to the group stage on Oct. 12-15. The playoffs are set for Oct. 25-Nov. 10.
The 12 teams that qualified for the play-in stage were each sorted into four groups, with four to advance to the group stage.
Clutch Gaming, Unicorns of Love and Mammoth comprise the play-in teams in Group A, while Splyce, Isurus Gaming and DetonatioN FocusMe are in Group B.
Hong Kong Attitude, Lowkey Esports and Mega are in Group C. Damwon Gaming, Royal Youth and Flamingo Esports comprise Group D.
--Field Level Media