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Wild Rift SEA Championship 2021: What you need to know

(Image: Riot Games)
(Image: Riot Games)

The first major Wild Rift esports tournament for the Southeast Asia region will take place from Tuesday (14 September) and culminate on 3 October.

Organised by Riot together with ESL, the SEA Championship 2021 is the final event for the SEA Icon Series that started earlier in February 2021. It will feature a prize pool of US$200,000, and the top two teams will get seeded to Wild Rift Worlds 2021, set to happen sometime at the end of the year.

Here's everything we know about the Wild Rift SEA Championship 2021:

There are a total of 21 teams competing, with 9 teams automatically in the group stage. These teams had previously qualified by winning in one of the Fall events.

The remaining 12 teams will then be drawn to play against each other in three Play-ins (14 to 19 September), with the winners joining the other teams in the Group Stage (23 to 26 September), followed by the Playoffs, which are seeded based on Group Stage performance. The Playoffs will take place from 3 September to 3 October.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all games will be played online, with teams heading to a designated venue to compete. These venues will follow strict medical guidelines from the country it is in. Because of the online structure, teams will also have to deal with ping, though Riot told Yahoo Esports that it will ensure "fair ping" for both teams.

As part of Riot's efforts to be hyperlocal to appeal to local audiences, the casting for the matches will be in eight different languages: English, Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

Play-ins

There will be a total of 12 teams taking part in three brackets from 14 to 19 September. Each bracket will have four teams and will be played in a double elimination format. Winners of each group will advance to the Group Stage. Losing teams will be eliminated, with the bottom of the group earning at least US$5,000 to US$6,000 depending on their placing.

Group Stage

The next leg of the SEA Championship 2021 will take place from Sep 23 to 26, and features a Single Round Robin Bo2 format in two teams of six. The top four teams from each group will then advance to the Playoffs. Eliminated teams will earn a sum of US$6,500 to US$7,500 depending on their final ranking.

Playoffs

The Playoffs segment begins on 30 September and ends on 3 October, with teams seeded based on their performance in the Group Stage.

The top two teams in the Group Stage get placed in the Upper Bracket Semifinal, while second place from each group will face the third place the opposite group.

The fourth placed teams will await the loser from the Upper Bracket Quarterfinal. Lower Bracket Rounds are played in Bo3, with the Lower Bracket Finals a Bo5. All Upper Bracket matches will be Bo5, with the Grand Final a Bo7.

Prize pool distribution

All teams participating at the SEA Championship 2021 will take home cash. The US$200,000 prize pool seems to be split a bit more evenly, with the winner taking home US$30,000, and the runner-up US$20,000.

Here's the quick breakdown

Placement

Prize money (US$)

1st

$30,000

2nd

$20,000

3rd

$16,000

4th

$14,000

5th-6th

$12,000

7th-8th

$10,000

9th-10th

$7,500

11th-12th

$6,500

13th-15th

$6,000

16th-18th

$5,000

19th-21st

$5,000

Participating teams

The 21 teams are split into two groups — those who have qualified for the Group Stage and those who are in the Play-ins.

They come from all over the SEA and Oceanic region: Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Indonesia.

Group Stage teams:

  • EVOS Esports TH (Thailand)

  • Geek Fam (Malaysia)

  • Azure Esports (Australia)

  • Team Secret (Philippines)

  • ONE Team (Taiwan)

  • SBTC Esports (Vietnam)

  • SVP (Hong Kong)

  • Alliance (Singapore)

  • MBR Esports (Indonesia)

Play-ins teams

  • Buriram United Esports (Thailand)

  • INVATE Esports (Thailand)

  • Berjaya Dragons (Malaysia)

  • FENNEL Adversity (Philippines)

  • Flash Wolves (Taiwan)

  • Looking For Daddy (Taiwan)

  • Divine Esports (Vietnam)

  • Saigon Phantom (Vietnam)

  • Boom Esports (Indonesia)

  • QWQ (Hong Kong)

  • Banana (Singapore)

  • Team Flash (Vietnam)

How to watch the SEA Championship 2021

The tournament will be streamed live in eight different languages, and you can catch the action on the Wild Rift's social channels, which includes YouTubeand Facebook.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com

For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter.

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