LoL Worlds — Worst Western Team Runs of All Time
The League of Legends World Championship is the end-of-the-year event that unites and divides fans worldwide as regional pride marches to the forefront. For the West, teams from the LEC and LCS Worlds often become a battle between both regions for one or two spots going into the Knockout Stage. Every now and then, a Western team makes an extremely deep run and has an amazing performance capable of challenging teams from the dominant LCK and LPL regions.
However, one of the biggest things the Western region is known for is underwhelming performances on the international stage.
This list will not be based purely on placements at the World Championship. Just because a team did not make it out of the Play-In Stage does not mean they are automatically the worst team. This list will be based on World placement, pre-tournament expectations, and opponent strength level.
Now, without further ado, here are the worst Western teams to ever compete at the League of Legends World Championship.
Related Article: League of Legends Worlds 2024: Full Schedule
Honorable Mentions
All of LCS (Worlds 2022)
All three Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, and Cloud9 are included here because this was historically the region's worst showing. North America went 3-15 throughout the entire Worlds 2022 Group Stage.
Cloud9 was the first-seeded North American team at the LoL World Championships for the first time since Worlds 2013 and failed miserably. Evil Geniuses came in as the North American third seed and struggled to carry any momentum from the Play-Ins stage. Finally, 100 Thieves was a disappointment. They came into this World Championship with zero roster changes and only managed to win one game against a team they likely should have beaten twice.
Team Liquid (Worlds 2023)
Team Liquid wasn’t expected to make it out of the Swiss Stage at Worlds 2023. However, they should have beaten GAM Esports in their elimination series. This was a disappointing series and their run at Worlds 2023 was lackluster. What keeps them off this list is their strong performance against the eventual World Champions, T1. Overall, things could have been better, but it's not an all-time bad performance in the West.
100 Thieves (Worlds 2024)
100 Thieves’ recent performance at the 2024 League of Legends World Championship was disappointing.
From a pure gameplay standpoint, this iteration of 100 Thieves might be the weakest or the second weakest Western team to ever compete on the World Championship stage.
However, this is not the worst Western team ever sent to the World Championships. This team should not be losing to Rainbow7 after taking down Cloud9 one month prior. Their natural mechanics should have been enough to win that series and put them in a position to face Pain Gaming for a spot in the Swiss Stage instead of PSG Talon.
Their expectations to make it any further than an appearance on the Swiss Stage were nearly non-existent.
This lineup's pre-tournament expectations were not nearly as high as previous North American teams. Additionally, PSG Talon is a formidable opponent.
MAD Lions (Worlds 2022)
MAD Lions are not the best on the World Championship stage. Apart from one quarterfinal finish at Worlds 2021, MAD Lions have been knocked out of Play-Ins twice and exited the Swiss Stage with just one singular win at Worlds 2023. This World Championship wasn’t even the first time they have been knocked out of the Play-In Stage.
What puts this team on the list is that they got 3-0’d by a team that also made this list (as an honorable mention). In no world should the MAD Lions have been knocked out of Worlds by a substitute-ridden Evil Geniuses team. They had the reigning LEC MVP in Yasin "Nisqy" Dincer, which should have been enough to at least contest Evil Geniuses.
G2 Esports (Worlds 2016)
It feels odd putting G2 Esports on this list as they are objectively the best Western team to ever compete on the World Championship stage. That does not erase the fact that their first World Championship appearance in 2016 was once considered the most disappointing Western performance.
G2 Esports came into Worlds 2016 as the number one seed from Europe and should have made it out of this group. They had the bot lane duo of Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen and Alfonso “Mithy” Aguirre Rodriguez.
While they had the LCK first seed ROX Tigers in this group, they also had Albus Nox Luna and Counter Logic Gaming. Albus Nox Luna was a team slated to go 0-6 in the group stage, and CLG finished fourth in the LCS 2016 Summer Split. In fact, their skill ceiling should have put them in a prime spot to contest the ROX Tigers for first in this weak group.
Instead, they went 0-5 throughout their first five games at the 2016 World Championships before winning their final game against Albus Nox Luna after being eliminated from the tournament. While Albus Nox Luna ended up surprising the entire League community by reaching the quarterfinals, this outcome could have been avoided if they had simply played to their actual skill.
TSM (Worlds 2020)
TSM was meant to stand as North America’s pride and joy at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship after a two-year hiatus away from the international stage. They had franchise superstars Yiliang “Doublelift Peng and Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg leading the charge. In addition, they had veteran support, Vincent “Biofrost” Wong, future G2 superstar Sergen “Brokenblade” Celik, and future LCS MVP Mingyi “Spica” Lu, all on the same team.
This team was seen as a team that could pose a serious threat to making it out of the group stages. The fact that this team did not win a single game in their group stage is embarrassing. Gen.G was seen as the weakest Korean team at Worlds. Fnatic was also a team that could be taken down. However, what caps this terrible Worlds performance is their performance against China’s fourth seed, LGD Gaming, who nearly got eliminated in Play-Ins after losing to Rainbow7. This team was so disappointing that their most iconic play at the World Championship is the “Nine-Man Sleep.”
TSM is the only Western first seed to go 0-6 in the Worlds Group Stage. What makes matters worse is that this was the final World Championship appearance for North America’s most distinguishable League of Legends brand.
MAD Lions (Worlds 2020)
Similar to 100 Thieves, this team was mostly comprised of rookies who overperformed their regular-season expectations by making it to the international stage. This was the first time that a Western team did not make it to the round-of-16 on the LoL Worlds stage.
In the Worlds 2020 Play-In Group Stage, this team won one game against Brazil’s INTZ Esports before scraping their way into the Play-In Semifinals after beating them again in the tiebreaker. When you think things will get better, they get worse as they drop their first best-of-five series to Turkey’s Papara SuperMassive, which then went on to lose to CIS’s Unicorns of Love.
Yes, they were Europe’s fourth seed going into the World Championships. However, in no world should a major region team not even make it to the qualifying match of the Worlds 2020 Play-In stage. It's only fitting that the worst Western team ever to compete on the World Championship stage also holds the infamous title of the worst placement for a Western team with their 19th-20th place finish.
Those looking to join in on the Worlds 2024 fun should be sure to get their LoL Pick’Ems in before the start of the Swiss Stage.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.