LoL Worlds 2021 Betting Odds: FPX Favored To Win

One of esports’ biggest events, the League of Legends World Championship, is once again starting to loom on the horizon. The elite event pits LoL’s best teams against each other in a huge LAN event, deciding the best team in the world each year.

In 2020, Korean team DWG Kia (then known as DAMWON Gaming) swept through the tournament and claimed the trophy in dominant fashion. However, even just 10 months later, the game is vastly different and new squads have risen to challenge the reigning champions.

Let’s take a look at the event in a bit more detail and check out some of the latest odds for Worlds 2021.

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Worlds 2021 Location and Dates

Originally, Worlds 2021 was supposed to take place in China. But, due to travel restrictions, the event has been moved to Reykjavik, Iceland. Worlds 2021 will start with the play-ins on October 5 and culminate with the final on November 6. 

Odds as of October 4 at Sportsbook

FPX and EDG Make LPL Strong Favorites

The LPL teams are once again favorites for Worlds, having won in 2018 and 2019, as well as coming in as favorites in 2020.

FunPlus Phoenix, the 2019 champions, once again rise to the occasion, coming in as slight favorites. They dominated all through the year in China, coming in second in both spring and summer playoffs, as well as winning the summer regular season. All in all, they look primed and ready to enter Worlds in hot form.

Meanwhile, Edward Gaming is the second-best representative from the LPL and comes just behind FPX in the odds. The team also performed incredibly well throughout the year, capping it off by defeating none other than FunPlus Phoenix in the LPL summer playoffs.

However, that’s not all the LPL has to offer. Royal Never Give Up and LNG Esports make up the other two Worlds spots from the region and both sides are just as dangerous as the favorites. In a very contested year in China, just about every top team took games from the other, meaning none of the teams can be underestimated.

If you’re a returning viewer from last year, you may be wondering: where are Top Esports, JD Gaming and Suning? Those teams dominated last year at Worlds! Well, they were eliminated by the aforementioned teams, showing just how much LoL talent there is in China.

DWG Kia Returns To Winning Ways After Rough Summer Start

After DWG Kia’s dominant Worlds win in 2020, it wouldn’t have been too far-fetched to put them as favorites in 2021. However, the summer regular season was quite bumpy for the world champions.

At one point it looked like they might not even make regional playoffs, then it seemed almost certain they wouldn’t secure a top seed. However, a hectic couple of weeks in the LCK proved that form is temporary, but class is permanent, as DWG swooped in to steal the top spot in the regular season, then dominated the playoffs to win Korea’s first Worlds seed.

The current world champions look like themselves once again, despite their rough patch, and are definitely a threat at Worlds. However, the competition is tough as always, so while it wouldn’t be too surprising to see them win it, there’s also a good chance someone else may snatch the trophy.

DWG is joined at Worlds by the usual suspects from the LCK – Gen.G and T1 – as well as newcomers Hanwha Life Esports. All three of these teams managed to put up fights against DWG Kia, so there’s definitely another strong set of teams coming from the region.

Does Europe or NA Stand a Chance?

It’s time to talk about the two other major regions of League of Legends – Europe and North America. The two regions have always been fan favorites of the English-speaking audience, which has been left pretty disappointed year after year as neither region has taken home a trophy since 2011.

The only Worlds victory for the West comes from the very first world championship event, which many don’t even consider a real win, since it was so early in the game and lacked a proper level of competition.

This doesn’t mean they haven’t challenged, however, as G2 Esports has been the leading force of the West, claiming top-four spots in the last three years and even coming second in 2019.

However, both regions seem to be seeing a changing of the guard in 2021. European favorite G2 didn’t even qualify for Worlds, while Fnatic barely snatched a spot after a shaky year. Instead, we’ll see MAD Lions and Rogue as the front-runners from Europe – two newer teams to the world stage featuring young guns.

A similar story has taken place in America. Most notably, Cloud9 and Team Liquid have been knocked down a peg, with 100 Thieves taking first place in the LCS Championship, while usual favorite C9 slid down to the third seed.

The two presumed super-teams, G2 and C9, definitely underdelivered this year, but considering the raw skill on both squads, it just shows how impressive the best seeds from EU and NA are. This means that 2021 could very well be the year of the West at Worlds.