Updated October 11: LOUD took the last of the 16 Champions Shanghai spots on September 5, and the tournament they earned it for is now in its playoff stage. This page tracks how the field narrowed. Results below are as listed on The Spike as of October 11; the Grand Final is October 18.
- All four China teams went out of the group stage without winning a series.
- Defending champions NRG were eliminated on October 11 by 100 Thieves.
- LOUD and Team Vitality are the two teams still unbeaten in the playoffs.
Format and prize pool
Sixteen teams (four each from Americas, EMEA, Pacific and China) played four double-elimination groups, all best-of-three, with the top two from each group moving into an eight-team playoff. Every playoff match is best-of-three except the lower bracket final and Grand Final, which are best-of-five. The event runs September 24 to October 18 in Shanghai for a $2.25 million prize pool, with $1,000,000 going to first place.
Group stage: who advanced
Series records, derived from the match results on The Spike:
| Group | Advanced | Eliminated |
|---|---|---|
| A | 100 Thieves (2-0), T1 (2-1) | FUT Esports, JD Gaming |
| B | Team Vitality (2-0), LOUD (2-1) | Global Esports, EDward Gaming |
| C | Paper Rex (2-0), G2 Esports (2-1) | Team Liquid, TYLOO |
| D | NRG (2-0), Nongshim RedForce (2-1) | Karmine Corp, XLG Esports |
The regional story is lopsided. Americas put all four teams (100 Thieves, LOUD, G2 and NRG) into the playoffs, Pacific sent T1, Paper Rex and Nongshim, EMEA sent only Team Vitality, and China sent none. TYLOO, JD Gaming, EDward Gaming and XLG all finished 0-2 on their home soil, which is a hard result for the region that had the local crowd.
Playoffs so far
| Date | Stage | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 7 | Upper quarterfinal | NRG 2-0 T1 |
| Oct 7 | Upper quarterfinal | LOUD 2-0 Paper Rex |
| Oct 8 | Upper quarterfinal | G2 Esports 2-0 100 Thieves |
| Oct 8 | Upper quarterfinal | Team Vitality 2-1 Nongshim RedForce |
| Oct 9 | Lower round 1 | T1 2-1 Paper Rex |
| Oct 9 | Lower round 1 | 100 Thieves 2-1 Nongshim RedForce |
| Oct 10 | Upper semifinal | LOUD 2-1 NRG |
| Oct 10 | Upper semifinal | Team Vitality 2-0 G2 Esports |
| Oct 11 | Lower round 2 | 100 Thieves 2-0 NRG |
What stands out
NRG came in as the defending champions and went out in the lower bracket, but the series that mattered was the upper semifinal with LOUD. NRG took the second map 13-10 and then lost the third 13-3, the kind of collapse that is hard to explain with a format note. LOUD’s path is the other half of the story: they were the last team to qualify, came out of Group B second behind Team Vitality, and have since beaten Paper Rex and NRG to sit in the upper bracket final.
The one open item I cannot confirm is the full remaining bracket, since the results page I used did not yet show the upper final, the remaining lower rounds or the Grand Final. Check the results page above for those as they are played.
