Riot Games announced the details of MSI 2023 and Worlds 2023, international tournaments in the League of Legends esports world, at the Season Kickoff event.
Worlds is coming to South Korea for 2023. Although it has been leaked before, Riot Games has not made an official statement on the subject. But Riot Games made the expected announcement with a video at the start of the Season Kickoff Event. It’s official now: Worlds 2023 will be played in South Korea.
The format change for Worlds 2023 and beyond has been expected by fans for a long time. With the new season, Riot went to the expected format change in its international tournaments. Again, with the video at the beginning of the Season Start Event, they gave information about both the teams’ participation rights and the functioning of the tournament.
Unlike before, Worlds 2023 will feature 22 teams instead of 24. LPL (China) and LCK (Korea) will continue to send their 4 teams, one to the Play-in stage and three to the Group stage. LEC (Emea) and LCS (North America) sent their 3 teams to the Group stage, while their 4th teams will have to play a Best of 5 match with each other in North America to qualify for the Play-in. In the remaining regions, VCS (Vietnam) and PCS (Southeast Asia and Oceania) will continue to send 2 teams, one Group stage, one to the Play-in stage. CBLOL (Brazil), LLA (Latin America) and LJL (Japan) regions will also send their representatives to the Play-in Stage.
Play-in Stage:
In the system, which abolished the point group system, 8 participants will be divided into two groups of 4 teams. With the matches to be determined with randomised, these 4 teams will be divided among themselves into pairs and will face each other in the Best of 5 system. In the match where the winners will reach the group final, the losers will continue their way in Loser’s Bracket. The group final winners will advance to the Groups stage, while the losers will relegate to the Loser’s Bracket group final. The winners of the Loser’s Bracket groups finals will face off against the other of the Loser’s Bracket group final winner in the Loser’s Bracket final to qualify for the Groups Stage. As a result, three teams, two group winners and one Loser’s Bracket final winner, will be eligible to advance from the Play-in stage to the Groups stage.
Groups Stage:
The Main Group stage has completely gotten rid of the point group stage that preceded it, just like Play-in Stage. Instead, a new system called the Swiss system will be used. In this system, all teams will start in the same group and continue by grouping them according to the number of wins and losses. As the team with 3 match wins progresses to the Playoff stage, the team with 3 losses will return home.
In the phase, each team will start 0 – 0. At first, teams will be matched with a team that is not from their own region by drawing lots. The first series will be played over a single game. After the matches, the teams will be divided into two groups as 1 – 0 and 0 – 1. The teams in these groups will again play a one match series between themselves in an order again determined by lots. At the end of these matches, we will have 4 teams with 2 – 0, 8 teams with 1 – 1 and 4 teams with 0 – 2. Teams with 2 – 0 and 0 – 2 will play a three-game matchup between them. The winners of the matches in group 2 – 0 will go to the Playoff stage. The losers of the matches in group 0 – 2 will be eliminated from the tournament. The remaining 4 teams will be matched in groups 2 – 1 and 1 – 2 with the teams that played a single match in group 1 – 1. After the 3-match series played in these groups, the winners of the 2 – 1 group qualify for the Playoffs. The losers of group 1 – 2 will watch the rest of the tournament from home. The rest will meet in the 2 – 2 group for a final three-game matchup. The winners of these matches will get the final Playoff ticket, while the losers will bid farewell to the tournament.
Playoff Stage:
The Playoff Stage was unchanged from last year. Participating teams will find themselves in a Single Elimination system that will be played in the Best of 5 format. Starting from the quarter-finals, they have to defeat their opponents by winning 3 out of 5 match-ups to reach the title of World Champion in 2023.
