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RLCS World Championship Wildcard Draft: The Complete Guide
It’s almost time for the final Rocket League tournament of the year! With Worlds just two weeks away, it’s time for the teams to start preparing for who they’re going to face in the very first rounds. On July 19th, the teams seeded into the Wildcard stage of the tournament will be taking part in the World Championship Wildcard draft. But what does that mean? Check out the full guide here.
World Championship Wildcard Draft Format - Who Gets to Pick?
Sixteen teams will have to make their way through the RLCS Wildcard stage in order to qualify for the group stage. Only then will they have a chance to cement themselves as one of the best Rocket League teams in the world. With only the top 8 able to make it through, competition is going to be fierce. This year, there are 3 teams from North America, 3 from the EU and 2 from Oceania, South America, Asia Pacific, Middle East/North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.
It’s also worth remembering that the teams in the World Championship Wildcard draft cannot pick a team from the same region to compete against. This is to ensure some fairness among the different regions and prevent domination by one region in particular.
The teams who are ranked 9th - 16th place in the Major slot points will be the ones picking. These teams are:
- Complexity Gaming
- G2 Esports
- Moist Esports
- Pioneers
- KRU Esports
- Spacestation Gaming
- PWR
- Elevate.
That means that none of these teams will face each other in the first round of competition. However, there is a chance that they will come up against:
- Team Secret
- Oxygen Esports
- G1
- Gaimin Gladiators
- Team Falcons
- Twisted Minds
- Limitless
- Valiant.
Why is the Draft Important?
This stage of the championship is vital for teams to have the best chance of proceeding to the group stage. Here, they will meet a further 8 teams who are already well rested and haven’t yet competed. There’s a little maths that can be done to eliminate some options in this who’s who of the RLCS World Championship Wildcard draft.
For example, Moist Esports (EU) already know that they cannot play against G1 or Oxygen Esports in the first round. This means they have a pool of just 6 potential opponents.
Similarly, KRU know they cannot play against Team Secret and Elevate know they cannot play against Gaimin Gladiators.
But beyond that, it’s almost impossible to call. What we do know is that teams in this stage will have to play up to 5 rounds of the Swiss stage before the top 8 teams are revealed. From there, all they’ll have to do to win the Championship is defeat a number of previous RLCS Major winners, previous World Champions and the creme de la creme of Rocket League talent in the groups before finally making it to the playoffs.
RLCS World Championships
This tournament is going to run for 10 long days of competition. The World Championship Wildcard draft is just the beginning. With competition set to kick off on August 3rd, these teams will have plenty of time to gather data on their opponents and practice their best strategies.
You can watch the entire draft on July 19th at 10am PT / 6PM BST live on First Touch and the official Rocket League Twitch account.