Following the ESPN report on the VCS teams unable to participate in the 2020 LoL World championships due to travel restrictions caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, it left many wondering how this will impact this year’s Worlds. On the 1st (KST), Riot Games officially announced that they’ve made the difficult decision of proceeding without the VCS representatives this year, alongside other format changes for the tournament.

What this meant was that the number of participating teams have decreased from 24 to 22, and while the VCS representatives will be surely missed this year, they will get their share of the prize pool, as if they have participated in the event.

Changes to the Play-in stages were also announced. As the number of teams dropped from 12 to 10, Riot decided to seed them into two different groups, consisting of five teams each. The first place team of each play-in group will automatically qualify for the main stages, and the last place team of each group will be eliminated. As for the other six teams, the 3rd and the 4th place team will play in a best of five series, and the winners will face the 2nd place team of the other group for the last tickets into the group stages.

They also explained that in order to maintain an even number of teams for the Play-in stages, they’ve decided to advance the third LCK seed directly into the group stages, based on the region’s past performances at international events.

With the COVID-19 pandemic having a huge impact on various events around the world, this year’s World Championships will surely look vastly different from Worlds in the previous years. However, the competition between the best teams around the world will prove to be even more fierce than ever, and only time will tell on which team will rise to the top.