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As we draw closer to the start of the inaugural League of Legends: Wild Rift Global Championship Icons, Riot Games have continued to release updates regarding the event, promising more information in the coming weeks.
One such update is the use of the yet-to-be-released ‘Patch 3.2: Time & Tide’ for the tournament. Wild Rift confirmed via Twitter that the patch will arrive on May 12.
“Welcome to Patch 3.2: Time & Tide, arriving on May 12th UTC! Set sail with @maddizzlee from the Wild Rift team and take a peek into the future for our upcoming gameplay updates, champions, and events.”
Perhaps the biggest update is the new venue that Riot Games have announced. The competition has now been moved to Singapore due to visa issues that could be encountered if the venue remains in Europe.
However, the new venue is one that Wild Rift fans are somewhat familiar with. In 2021, it was home to the Wild Rift Horizon Cup, where 10 teams came together to compete for the US$500,000 prize pool.
Chinese esports organization Da Kun Gaming won the event after defeating their Chinese counterparts ThunderTalk Gaming 4-2 in the finals. They walked away with $100,000 for their efforts.
Wild Rift Global Championship icons will commence on June 14 with the play-in stage. Of the 16 teams in the play-in group, only the top eight teams will advance to the group stage.
Meanwhile, all but four slots are yet to be filled. Upon the completion of the Wild Rift League, the Chinese teams representing the region will be known.
In the group stage, which will commence on June 21, the champions of each region will be shared evenly into four groups of four, each completed by the play-in teams. From then, the top teams will proceed to the knockout stage
Eight different regions are duly represented in the tournament. Below is a list of the teams who will be participating and their regions.
Group stage teams
- Team Flash (South-East Asia)
- KT Rolster (Korea)
- Sengoku Gaming (Japan)
- Omegha E-sports (Brazil)
- Leviatan (Latin America)
- Immortals (North America)
- Team Queso (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)
- JDG/FPX (China)*
The China final is yet to be played, but whoever wins the Wild Rift League Season 1 between JDG and FPX will get a direct seed to the group stage of the Icon Global Championship, while the losing team will join the play-in stage.
There are still some undecided matchups in the Chinese league to ascertain what teams will be in the play-in. However, other regions have already produced their finalists.
- Flash Wolves (South-East Asia)
- Rex Regum Qeon (South-East Asia)
- Buriram United Esports (South-East Asia)
- Sentinels (North America)
- Rix.GG (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)
- Game-Lord (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)
- Freecs (Korea)
- T1 (Korea)
- Donuts USG (Japan)
- Furious Gaming (Latin America)
- STMN Esports (Latin America)
- Liberty (Brazil)
- Keyd Stars (Brazil)
- JDG/FPX (China)*
- NOVA/J Team (China)*
- Weibo/OMG/NOVA/J Team (China)*
NOVA and J Team will play a best-of-seven match in the Icons Last Chance Qualifier upper bracket final. Whoever wins that tie will qualify for the Global Championship, while the losing team will be relegated to the lower bracket final.
Team Weibo and Oh My God are currently in the lower bracket semifinals, and by May 14, we will know who won the best-of-five game. Whoever wins that matchup will advance to the lower bracket finals and compete for a shot at Icons qualification.
A total of $2 million will be shared among the 24 teams competing in the tournament. However, at the time of publication, how the prize pool will be divided among teams has not been revealed.
The showdown will be on July 9. Although no word on what the grand prize will be, it will undoubtedly be a sizable amount considering the prize pool, and the winners will have bragging rights as world champions.
