Riot Games has revealed the details for the League of Legends Rift Rivals 2019: NA vs. EU event. The event will once again take place at the LCS Studio in Los Angeles, starting June 27. It will feature three days of competition, with the finals being played on June 29. Tickets for the event will be available for purchase starting May 29, 7:00 p.m. CEST, costing $30/day or $80 for three days at SquadUp.
The format
Even though the format will be the same as last year, it can be quite hard to understand. Each region’s top three teams from the Spring Split will first face off in a single round robin. This means each team will play three games, one against each team from the opposing region. The stronger region here will get some benefits in the finals.
In the finals, every team from both regions will play at least one game in a best-of-five series. The weaker region from groups will have to blindly pick the team that will play in the next game for the entirety of the best-of-five. On the other hand, the stronger region will be able to counter pick in the first three games. This means the weaker region will pick a team for the upcoming game and the stronger region will be notified about it. They will then be able to pick a team that has the best matchup against that team, in theory increasing their chances of winning. The first region to win three games will be crowned Rift Rivals 2019: NA vs. EU champion.
Participating teams
This year’s Rift Rivals: NA vs. EU will be especially interesting after the phenomenon that was MSI 2019. However, it’s not just the strongest team from both regions competing at this event. This could be a good or bad thing based on the performance of the other two teams. The rule that each team must play in at least one game in the finals forces the whole region to prove they are better than their opponents, not just one team. So sorry, G2 Esports — no solo sweeping Team Liquid in the finals this time around.
On that note, EU representatives include none other than the reigning MSI champion, G2 Esports. They qualified for Rift Rivals by finishing first in the Spring Split. Subsequently, Origen also qualified after losing to G2 in the finals. Lastly, Fnatic qualified by advancing to the third round in the LEC playoffs, where they lost to Origen.
On the other side of the pond, the story is quite similar. Second MSI finalist Team Liquid will be the first team coming from NA. They qualified after winning the Spring Split. The second team will be TSM, who qualified after losing to Team Liquid in the LCS finals. Last but not least, Cloud9 qualified by advancing to the LCS playoffs semifinals. Riot Games didn’t decide on a third place match this split, so C9 were given third place based on their regular split finish being higher than that of FlyQuest.
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