Based on the results of the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship in the year prior, with the 2018 MSI victory of Royal Never Give Up and 2018 Worlds victory of Invictus Gaming, the third seed team from China (LPL) will start in the group stage, replacing the third seed team from South Korea (LCK) that will now instead begin in the play-in stage. Due to the merger of Latin America North's and Latin America South's professional leagues into a single league (LLA) and the results of the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, Vietnam (VCS) will have a direct spot in the group stage for the summer champions and an additional spot in the play-in stage for the summer runner-up, the same format used in 2017 Worlds. The summer champions of Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau (LMS) have also been dropped to pool #2.