The Amazon European Masters 2022 spring play-in groups have been drawn, and the tournament is all set for its April 4 start date.
The spring edition of EU Masters 2022 runs from April 4-7, and with the Northern League of Legends championship final and the Ligue Française de League of Legends semifinals wrapping up Wednesday, the remaining play-in slots are decided. The final play-in teams were Bifrost from the NLC and EU Masters defending champions Karmine Corp from the LFL, respectively.
The 2022 Amazon #EUMasters Play-In Groups! pic.twitter.com/73TFnBdx30
— EMEA Masters (@EMEAmasters) March 31, 2022
The general format has not changed from last year, where all the single-game, double-round robin matches will be played in two days from April 4-5.
After a one-day break, the top two teams from each group will enter the knockout stage, which is a best-of-three format. The four winning teams will then enter the EU Masters main event, which begins on April 14.
What has changed, according to the official ERL & EM Rulebook, is seeding for play-ins and the knockout stage will be drawn rather than using the old format of predetermined cross-group matches. The seeding for this year’s play-ins are as follows:-
- Pool 1: LFL third seed [Karmine Corp], Ultraliga third seed [Iron Wolves], LVP SuperLiga third seed [Barça eSports], Prime League third seed [Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition]
- Pool 2: LFL fourth seed [Vitality.Bee], UL fourth seed [Zero Tenacity], NLC second seed [Bifrost], PG Nationals second seed [Macko Esports]
- Pool 3: Greek Legends League second seed [WLGaming Esports], Hitpoint Masters first and second see [Entropiq & eSuba], Liga Portuguesa de LoL first and second seed [FTW Esports & EGN Esports] Elite Series LoL first and second seed [KRC Genk Esports & mCon LG UltraGear], Esports Balkan League second seed [Valiance]
The previous editions of play-ins had no seeding for group draws, and some members of the community were pleased with this change for 2022.
Ok obvious bait aside, I LOVE that we have seeded playins groups, and think that most of these groups seem reasonably balanced against each other (as much as they can be with these teams in this format)
Looking like a great start to the competition.
— Alex ‘Nymaera’ Hapgood (@Nymaera) March 31, 2022
happy to see there's at least seeding in place this time around
— Rafael Oliveira (@Ahnyfar) March 31, 2022
Perhaps the most unexpected team here is Karmine Corp from the LFL, as they are the back-to-back EU Masters champions from last year. They will have a chance to defend their title if they make it out of the play-in knockouts.
The match schedule was also posted recently by the EU Masters’ in a Twitter thread, starting off with Barça eSport taking on WLGaming Esports.
The Amazon #EUMasters Play-Ins day 1 schedule for Group A! pic.twitter.com/IpLzkqmuFT
— EMEA Masters (@EMEAmasters) March 31, 2022
Stream links have not been announced yet, but if it follows last year’s format, there will be no official English stream for play-ins.
