China Announces Three Spots at S4WC and New Qualifier Format

Riot revealed that China will have three spots going into the Season Four World Championships. In response, LPL has revealed a new format for determining the three teams who will be going to the main event in South Korea this year. This new format places more weight on the Spring Playoffs performance.

Two plans exist depending upon whether the first place team in the LPL Spring Playoffs differs from the first place team in the LPL Summer Playoffs. Should the same team take first place at both events, this team will automatically qualify as the first seed to go to the Season Four World Championships representing China. Given the results of today's games, that team could be either EDG or iG should this case occur. For the remaining two seeds, the second place team from Spring Split and the second, third and fourth place teams from the Summer Split will play in a double elimination best-of-three tournament with random seeding. The upper bracket and lower bracket winners will receive the remaining seeds into the Season Four World Championships. In the case of repeat teams, the fifth place team from Summer will be given an invitation to the qualifier.

If the first place team of Spring and Summer Playoffs would differ, the Spring Split and Summer Split champions will face off to determine who gets first seed into the World Championships. After that, the loser of that best-of-three will drop into the randomly seeded tournament and play against the second place team from Spring Playoffs and the second and third place teams from the Summer Playoffs. The upper and lower bracket winners of this double-elimination qualifier will receive the last two seeds representing China at the Season Four World Championships in South Korea.

Tune in tomorrow to watch the LPL third place match and grand finals starting at 1:00AM PST. Regardless of who wins, both iG and Edward Gaming are at least guaranteed a spot in the S4WC qualifiers.