Presented by Kelsey Moser At the 2018 World Championship, three Play-In level teams advanced to the Quarterfinal of the main event.
Major region third seeds Cloud9, EDward Gaming, and G2 Esports all grinded from Play-In to Bracket, while first seed Team Liquid did not make the cut.
On top of that, potential Grand Slam winners Royal Never Give Up, who had nearly dominated every event they attended that year, didn’t win the World Championship.
They lost out in the quarterfinal to G2 Esports while second seed Invictus Gaming managed to surge through quarterfinals and semifinals to take the Summoner’s Cup.
Historically speaking, only two first seed regional representatives have ever won the World Championship.
One did so in the context of a less rigorous format. The other only after a nearly unprecedentedly dominant domestic season and heavy context surrounding 2015’s LoL landscape.
The reality of the matter is that first seeds historically have come into the World Championships with disadvantages to both third and second seed teams from their own regions.
Each seed (first, second, and third) come with their own alleged advantages in World Championship qualification, but what third and second seeds gain outpaces what first seeds gain.
Here is everything you need to know about the First Seed Curse…
