Team Liquid and Cloud9, the 1st and 2nd LCS seeds for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, will not be heading to South Korea as it has in years past to bootcamp for Worlds. 

The pre-Worlds plans for both teams were confirmed in the post-match press conferences following TL 3-2 victory over C9 in the 2019 LCS Summer Finals. Cloud9 Head Coach Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu gave confirmation when prompted in a question from Travis Gafford, and explained the reasoning behind the deviation from the norm.

"I think it's true that all western teams are bootcamping in EU since Worlds is in EU. We don't to take two, potentially three, long flights in a row by going to Korea before Europe.

Based on this fact, it's going to be a really exciting Worlds for every League of Legends fan, because this is the first time the western teams are not going to Korea to bootcamp. We're not showing the meta to our opponents outside of practice and scrims just before the tournament, but teams will probably not show their best picks. It's going to be really interesting to watch, and it's going to be fun."

When asked a similar question by Gafford in Team Liquid's following press conference, Assistant Coach Kang "Dodo" Jun-hyeok confirmed he had spoken to LEC teams who planned on staying in Europe to bootcamp before the World Championship as well.

"This year, Worlds is happening in Europe, so I think a lot of teams are actually going to bootcamp there. I've contacted some LEC teams, and they are staying in Europe for the bootcamp, so I think it makes sense for us to go to Europe this time. The time difference won't be as bad, and we'll be able to scrim against a better region. I believe Korean and Chinese teams will stay in their regions before Worlds.

We will have a week or two weeks off before we go to Europe, and then we will bootcamp for around three weeks, and then we'll be ready for Worlds."

With the western teams heading to EU, and the eastern teams staying to bootcamp in their own regions, the decreased visibility on the difference in regional playstyle before the start of the tournament could make the 2019 League of Legends World Championship the most exciting Worlds yet.