Worlds Is Over, What's Next?

The biggest League of Legends event of the year is over. Worlds 2016 ended in an impressive best of 5 between two titans of League of Legends, SKT T1 and Samsung Galaxy. But there's still more left before the spring split begins for all regions. In this article, I'll be going over the upcoming international events and regional events for League of Legends.

- 2016 LoL KeSPA Cup: November 11-19

The KeSPA Cup is a League of Legends tournament organized by by Korean eSports Association. This tournament features fourteen teams. These times will include: ALL 2016 LCK Summer teams, finalists from the 2016 Challengers Korea Playoffs, and finalists from the 2016 KeG Championship. The KeSPA cup will be an offline event. The implications of this event include: the highest ranked 2016 LCK Summer team that doesn't participate in Playoffs qualifies for IEM Oakland. The winner of the tournament qualifies for IEM Gyeonggi. 

The tournament is split into the qualifying round and the Playoffs. The qualifying round will be single elmination with matches being played as best of 3s. If a team reached the finals of the LCK Summer Playoffs, they're granted a bye into Playoffs. The Playoffs will remain single elimation with matches being played as best of 3s. The final will, however, be played as a best of 5. 

The following teams will be attending:

2016 LCK Summer teams:

Afreeca Freecs
CJ Entus
ESC Ever
Jin Air Green Wings
KT Rolster
Longzhu Gaming
MVP
ROX Tigers
Samsung Galaxy
SK Telecom T1

Finalists from Challengers Korea Summer Playoffs:

Kongdoo Monster
RisingStar Gaming

Finalists from the 2016 KeG Championship:

Chungcheongnam
Seoul City

- Intel Extreme Masters Season 11 (including IEM Oakland, IEM Gyeonggi, and the World Championship at IEM Katowice):

Intel Extreme Masters Season 11 is an ESL sanctioned multi eSports tournament that spans the course of many events. League of Legends is a focus of three of their events in IEM Oakland, IEM Gyeonggi, and IEM Katowice. This years IEM has received many changes such as: no fan votes (teams are invited based on their summer split rankings and their performances at Worlds), more team are invited, more region representation (at least one team from every region will be invited), and no byes into Playoffs. 

This tournament will be split in a group stage and Playoffs. In the group stage, the teams will be split into two groups of four in a double elimination format. Matches will be a best of 3 and the top two teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs. The top two teams from each group will then play a single elimination match to determine seedings for the semifinal match. The semifinal match will be a best of 3 and the final match will be a best of 5. The winner of the events will qualify for IEM Katowice. 

 

- IEM Oakland: November 19-20

Intel Extreme Masters Season 11 begins with IEM Oakland. Located in Oakland, California, IEM Oakland is one of two tournaments that League of Legends teams participate in to qualify for a chance at the IEM World Championship in Katowice. Many teams have already technically qualified based on their summer split standings. Listed below are the teams that are currently qualified for this event. Keep in mind that teams have not officially been announced so this is speculation based on how ESL has stated that the event will have teams qualify. Additionally, teams can decline their invitations.

North America:

TSM as the #1 seed from the NA LCS Summer split.
Immortals as the #4 seed from the NA LCS Summer split.  (Cloud 9 autoqualified for IEM Katowice due to achieving top 8 at the League of Legends World Championship).

Europe:

Splyce as the #2 seed from the EU LCS Summer split.  

China: 

I May as the #3 seed from the LPL Summer split.  

LMS:

Flash Wolves as the #1 seed from the LMS Summer split. 

Korea:

Highest ranked LCK Summer split team that does not make playoffs in the KeSPA cup.

International Wildcards:

INTZ eSports from CBLOL as the #1 seed from the IEM Challenger Oakland Qualifier.
The Chiefs eSports club from the OPL as #2 seed from the IEM Challenger Oakland Qualifier. 

 

- IEM Gyeonggi: December 16-18

The second tournament to qualify for the IEM World Championships in Katowice. Located in South Korea, IEM Gyeonggi has a similar qualification method to IEM Oakland and the aforementioned statements apply to this event as well.

North America:

Counter Logic Gaming as the #4 seed from the NA LCS Summer split. *Potentially not attending as Stixxay stated that he believes Counter Logic Gaming will decline the invite*

Europe:

G2 eSports as the #1 seed from the EU LCS Summer split. 

China:

Royal Never Give Up as the #2 seed from the LPL Summer split. 

LMS:

J Team (formerly Taipei Assassins) as the #2 seed from the LMS Summer split. 

Korea:

ROX Tigers as the #1 seed from the LCK Summer split. 

The second team will be TBD based on who wins the KeSPA cup. 

International Wildcard:

Dark Passage from the TCL as the #1 seed from IEM Challenger Gyeonggi qualifier.

Vega Squadron from the CIS as the #2 seed from IEM Challenger Gyeonggi qualifier. 

 

- International Wildcard All-Star Barcelona: December 1st-4th

This event is the prequalifier for the International Wildcard team for All-Star Barcelona 2016. This event will determine the Wildcard team that will showcase at the All-Star event in Barcelona the following week.

 

- All-Star Barcelona 2016: December 8th-11th

All-Star Barcelona is a Riot hosted League of Legends event that will occur in Barcelona, Spain. This tournament will feature some of the world's best and most popular players competing against each other on two teams - Team Fire and Team Ice. There will be six teams attending, one from each major region (e.g. North America, Europe, Korea, China, and Taiwain/Hong Kong/Macao). The final team will be the winning Wildcard team from the aforementioned event, International Wildcard All-Star Barcelona. Each team will be assigned either Team Fire or Team Ice depending on their region's Mid-Season Invitational and World Championship performances. 

Players will be voted in towards this event, details are here. The voting begins on the 31st of October and ends on the 7th. You can vote for players here.

http://www.lolesports.com/en_US/articles/all-star-voting-coming

There's lots of events coming up so don't be worried! There will be lots of League of Legends to watch.