The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) has announced the addition of League of Legends among the 16 game titles in the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC).
The nation-based tournament will see a total of 32 national teams compete from November 21st to November 29th, featuring play-ins, group stage, and a playoff bracket, as well as a combined $1.5m (~£1.1m) prize pool.
LoL Esports Nations Cup Format
The first phase of the tournament will be the Play-Ins, featuring 24 teams competing in a double-round-robin group stage with four groups of six teams each. Matches will all be best-of-one. The top two teams from each group will advance to the Group Stage.
The Group Stage will then see the top 16 teams compete in a round-robin format, with four groups of four teams each playing a best-of-three series. The top two from each group go to the Playoffs, where they will compete in a single-elimination bracket. Matches will be best-of-three once again, except the Grand Final, which will be a best-of-five.
Esports Nations Cup League of Legends tournament will have 16 invited teams
According to a release, the tournament organiser will invite 16 teams based on a newly developed national team ranking that will consider global and regional LoL competitions.
Clubs will be ranked based on placements in official Riot Games competitions, with points shared equally among all Club teammates who participated. The national ranking will then accumulate the points of the top five players on the submitted national roster. Two substitutes are allowed per team.
The cut-off date for the rankings will be June 14th, likely after the end of the Spring splits across all major regions and before the start of the Mid-Season Invitational, which begins on June 27th in Daejeon, South Korea.
Among the remaining 16 teams, 14 of them will qualify through regional online qualifiers, with the following slot distributions:
- North America (2 slots)
- South America (2)
- Europe West (2)
- Europe East (2)
- Southeast Asia + Oceania (2)
- Asia (2)
- Middle East + Africa (2)
The online qualifier will take place from June 19th to June 21st, featuring double-elimination brackets. The best-performing roster per nation will qualify for the event until the slot allocation is reached. There will be two additional wildcard slots, although no indication has been given as to how they will be allocated.
According to the team formation rulebook, a national team can only field a maximum of three players who come from the same club. For example, only up to three T1 players can be part of South Korea’s national team.
Last month, the EWCF announced a $45m (~£32.6m) commitment to the esports industry, $20m (~£14.4m) of which will be distributed as prize pools.
