LoL Spring Splits Kick Off Around The World This Week In Esports Betting

[toc]Last week, the final qualifier for the League of Legends Spring Splits was played in Europe. After three days of tough competition, Team Kinguin and Fnatic Academy beat six opponents to earn their places in the EU LCS Spring Split, which starts this week.

However, it is not only in Europe where the best League of Legends teams will start the arduous task of qualifying for the 2017 Worlds. Similar qualifying events are also taking place across the globe in North America (NA), South Korea (LCK), China (LPL), and Taiwan (LMS).

There are also several countries and regions competing for a single qualifying spot in the IWC section, including Japan, Oceania, and Latin and Central America.

From now through springtime, Bet365 will be offering extensive esports betting from all the different qualifiers from around the globe.

Before we explore the different bets available in the opening week of fixtures (which starts for many on Jan. 20), let’s take a brief look at how the qualifying sections for each of the geographic tournaments are set up.

NA LCS Spring Split

In the North American section, ten teams qualified for the initial Spring Split phase. These teams are:

• Cloud9
• Counter Logic Gaming
• Echo Fox
• FlyQuest eSports
• Immortals
• Phoenix1
• Team Dignitas
• Team EnVyUs
• Team Liquid
• Team SoloMid

In the round-robin stage, each team will play the other nine in its group twice during nine weeks of fixtures (contested Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in each week). At the end of the qualifying section, the top two teams will receive first-round byes in the playoffs, while the teams finishing third through sixth will enter the playoffs’ first round.

Seventh and eighth place teams requalify for the next LCS Split but do not qualify for the playoffs, and the ninth and tenth place will play in the Promotion Tournament against two teams from the Tier 2 Challenger Series event to re-earn their rights to play in the Summer Split.

EU LCS Spring Split

The EU LCS Spring Split 2017 also features ten teams, but unlike the NA section, this section is split into two groups of five. Those groups being:

• Group A: Fnatic, G2 Esports, GIANTS! Gaming, Misfits, ROCCAT
• Group B: H2k-Gaming, Origen, Splyce, Unicorns of Love, Vitality

In this section, each team plays its group twice, but in a special twist it will also play the five teams in the other group once during the qualification process. (That’s a total of 13 matches across 10 weeks of qualifying)

At that point, the top three teams in each group qualify for the playoffs with the top team seeded into the semifinal and the other teams competing against teams from the other group for the remaining places in the semifinals.

LCK (South Korea) Spring Split

At the time of this writing, the 2017 LCK Spring Split event is already underway, with two matches played. This is traditionally the strongest of all of the qualifying sections. Therefore, people with an interest in backing the 2017 champion will be paying close attention to this section.

Ten teams compete in a single group during 10 weeks of action, and each team will take on the others in the group twice to decide positioning in the league table.

The teams competing are:

• KT Rolster (which have already beaten ROX Tigers 2-0 in their opening game)
• ROX Tigers
• Afreeca Freecs
• Ever
• Jin Air Green Wings
• Kongdoo Monster
• Longzhu Gaming (drew their opener 1-1 with Samsung Galaxy)
• MVP
• Samsung Galaxy
• SK Telecom T1 (the current World Champions)

The top five teams from the table will qualify for the playoffs.

LPL (China) Spring Split

Historically, Chinese League of Legends teams have been the strongest opposition for Korean teams at Worlds. The 2017 LPL Spring Split looks to be another very strong event. Twelve teams have qualified and will battle it out through a group stage and playoffs.

Here are the two groups:

• Group A – IMay, Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, OMG, Royal Never Give Up, Snake Esports
• Group B – EDward Gaming, Game Talents, Newbee, Qiao Gu Reapers, Team We, Vici Gaming

The top four teams in each group will qualify for the playoffs with the winner seeded into the semifinal and the runner-up seeded into the quarterfinal. Third and fourth place will play each other to earn the last quarterfinal spot.

LMS (Taiwan) Spring Split

The 2017 LMS Spring Split features some top quality Taiwanese teams, including the perennial championship qualifiers ahq e-Sports club. Eight teams will compete for four playoff spots through a round-robin league stage where all teams will play the other in the group twice.

The group comprises the following teams:

• Ahq e-Sports Club
• Fireball
• Flash Wolves
• Hong Kong Esports
• J Team
• Machi 17
• Wayi Spider
• eXtreme Gamers

Starting this week, Bet365 offers a vast array of betting markets on all the top League of Legends Spring Split qualifiers. These include the match winner, which team will win Map 1 or Map 2, and many other bets. Remember to check Bet365 for all the action on this massive championship qualification event.