Worlds 2024 is the second League of Legends World Championship using a Swiss Stage in place of the Group Stage that was present for every year prior.
The format debuted last year to high praise, mixing up the traditional Groups format with a new flair. Gone were the useless matches at the end of the stage, the Groups of Death that promised demise for an unlucky hopeful, etc.
However, the new Worlds Swiss Stage was not without its issues as well. Notably, LCK 4th seed Dplus KIA was drawn against the LCK 3rd seed twice. After losing both games, Dplus KIA was eliminated one win shy of advancing. Still, the format was in its first year, so some kinks were expected. Coming into Worlds 2024, Riot announced that repeat matches were no longer allowed.
Despite that welcome change, the Worlds 2024 Swiss Stage still has problems. With G2’s draw and subsequent loss against the LPL 1st seed Bilibili Gaming, this is the first Worlds ever without an NA versus EU grudge match.
Additionally, G2 was eliminated after facing the LPL and LCK 1st seeds, as well as the defending world champions T1. Meanwhile, North America is guaranteed a team in the Playoffs with ZERO wins against the LPL, LCK, or LEC.
How did this happen? Is the Swiss Format doomed to have issues like this? What can be done to fix the Swiss Stage?
The pro circuit revolves around the four major regional leagues: the LCS (NA), LEC (EMEA), LPL (China), and LCK (Korea). At Worlds, teams are seeded based on their performance in these regional leagues and placed into pools to draw from. The winner of each region gets first seed and a pool one spot.
The issue is not all first seeds are created equal. This is also true for every seed down the line. Most years, a North American first seed could only dream of taking a single game off of the LPL or LCK first seed. A European third seed is often no match for an eastern third seed. You get the picture. Without a proper ranking for the teams, initial Swiss Stage seeding is going to be unbalanced.
Now, Riot has taken measures to remedy this issue. Just a month ago, they announced a new, Global League of Legends Power Ranking. This new ranking takes into account many metrics to try and seed teams properly on a worldwide scale. When looking at the rankings, it seems fairly detailed on the surface, even ranking the regions as a whole.
There will always be flaws in a ranking like this when there are so few international tournaments. The sample size is so low that Strength of Opponent will likely be one of the biggest contributing factors to the scores. This leads to the issue of playstyle matchups, where a team may just be ill-suited to beating another team regionally, which now affects the global rankings due to one MSI or Worlds head-to-head.
Currently, G2 Esports is ranked sixth worldwide following their exit at worlds. While it’s likely that they could have advanced to top eight with a less brutal Swiss draw, the fact that we haven’t and won’t get to see them play against the likes of LNG, Dplus KIA, or Weibo, naturally adds a level of speculation.
Looking at this optimistically for a second, if Riot’s ranking algorithm proves to be at least somewhat accurate at ranking the top teams in the world and predicting outcomes of their matches, it could help specifically with seeding at international events. An accepted list like this at least gives a reason for certain teams to be matched up against others for the sake of a more fair bracket, if they DO decide to use this ranking at international events that is.
The Worlds Swiss Stage operates on a draw-based matchup system in between every round. Basically, teams with the same number of wins/losses are put into a random draw to decide who they play against next. Assuming at least a reasonably close field, this becomes less of an issue since each match has a decent chance at going either way.
But remember, that’s not the case. There will often be between 10 and 12 teams of the 16 in the Worlds Main Stage that have the skill to advance given a better meta read, playing better on the day, or just a good stylistic matchup. That variability already exists. Best-of-ones also help to provide plenty of it. The teams that aren’t in this list though? They’re relegated to fodder, which throws everything out of whack.
Team Liquid was not playing well this Worlds. Their two wins came against paiN Gaming and GAM Esports, two teams who qualified from Play-Ins. As the 13th seed according to Riot’s rankings, they should have had to play against one of the higher seeds in Round 5, perhaps Bilibili Gaming or G2 Esports at 2nd and 6th.
Nope, random draw says they get the 14th seed FlyQuest. Which they lost, sending that 14th seed through to the top eight. Meanwhile, the poor 6th seed G2 faces BLG and eats an elimination in a close series.
There are advocates for keeping the current system of seeding and match scheduling in the Worlds Swiss Stage, or at least not implementing such a rigid re-seeding structure. The main argument comes down to the guaranteed pool seeds and randomized draw creating “drama” and excitement due to the uncertainty and wild variability.
While we won’t argue that seeing European streamers react in despair as the BLG ball is drawn right after G2’s isn’t great content, you know what would have been better content? G2 versus FlyQuest. Or G2 versus Gen.G in the upcoming Quarterfinals.
The fact that G2 got close to beating BLG adds insult to injury even. Both of these teams should have gotten their chance on the big stage in a sold out stadium, with millions of fans watching on streaming platforms. Instead, G2 unceremoniously goes home without ever leaving the LEC studio.
At least we went out swinging 🫡
The support on home turf was unreal, thanks to everyone showing love, hope we put on a good show for you all ❤️ pic.twitter.com/xy5YDylpbr
— G2 League of Legends (@G2League) October 13, 2024
And let’s say for a second that FlyQuest got that potential Round 5 G2 match, or got matched up against Dplus or Weibo. We saw what they could do against HLE. That match was winnable for them. They could have made it to Quarterfinals without this monkey on their back as a team with zero wins outside of NA and minor regions. Now if they lose to Gen.G in any fashion other than a winnable series, the title of “fluke” will be forever glued to their run here.
To those who say that doing away with the random draw will harm western representation and fandom in the League of Legends space, our question is, do you really have that little faith? Both G2 Esports and FlyQuest could have been playoff caliber teams this Worlds. Seeing them beat down on lower ranked opponents, get insanely, tantalizingly close against the best in the world, then have their tournament lives decided by a dice roll just feels sad.
Yes, it is true that if you want to win Worlds, you need to be able to beat the HLE’s and BLG’s. But the journey is just as important as the destination. Worlds deserves better than this. Again, we didn’t even get one NA versus EU match. Even MAD Lions against Team Liquid in the 0-2 bracket, or a Liquid vs Fnatic MSI rematch in 1-2 would have scratched that itch for rivalry.
While we may be coming off as overly critical, the Worlds Swiss Stage has been a great success for LoL Esports as a whole. The Group Stage was old and tired, and change needed to come to make the Main Stage better. But there is no reason to stop at “good” or “better.” While draw drama would be a casualty of changes like these, a more balanced bracket with the potential for the closest and most interesting matches in the later Swiss rounds and beyond is the payoff.
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