Pobelter suggests adding a losers bracket at Worlds

Fans and experts are longing for a Worlds format change. 

With the 2020 League of Legends World Championship going into its last stages, CLG mid laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park has voiced his opinion about the lack of a losers bracket at the tournament. 

The Worlds format has been discussed over many years and it always seems to come back whenever the annual Worlds event returns. This year, the focus is aimed towards the fact that there is still no losers bracket in the playoffs. This would give losing teams a second chance for the Summoner’s Cup. 

“I think introducing a loser’s bracket next year would be really cool for Worlds,” Pobelter said. “Maybe even like Dota TI style where the third seed in the group could be seeded into loser’s bracket instead of eliminated,”.

LCS and LEC have had success with losers bracket

The discussion happened after both the LEC and LCS have introduced a double-elimination format for 2020, with great success so far. The new format for the leagues brought fans a lot more games for the playoffs and some miracle runs throughout the losers bracket.

The most recent example of the double-elimination format in its full effect is Team SoloMid’s journey through the summer split playoffs. TSM lost in the first round of playoffs to Golden Guardians and was, therefore, knocked down in the losers bracket because of the new format.

TSM then made it all the way through the bracket, winning a total of four best-of-five series to reach the final. TSM won the final against FlyQuest and secured the LCS first seed for Worlds 2020. 

TSM got to play a total of 17 games in the losers bracket, games that would never have happened with the single-elimination format that Worlds is currently using.

Other League of Legends experts has also voiced their opinions on the current Worlds format. Nick “LS” Cesare and Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera recently brought up the discussion on the Facecheck podcast, where they both agreed to the fact that the Worlds format needs a change. Just like Pobelter, the two experts were referencing Dota’s The International, where teams get a second chance in the playoffs.  

Riot has previously said that they stand by the current format because of the tight schedule that Worlds is running on. With that said, Riot has changed the Worlds format before so there is no guarantee that it won’t happen again in the future. 

Worlds 2020 continues on October 24 where the semifinals kicks off.