Riot Games has given fresh information on the 2023 LoL esports season.
Today Riot Games has released a press release surrounding the biggest LoL esports topics heading into the 2023 season. This 'state of the game' provides full details on the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational, including its format along with information for the 2023 League of Legends World Championship.
MSI 2023 is heading to London
Rumors have been circulating for weeks on the location of the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational. Today Riot announces that the location for MSI will be in London England! London has previously hosted a portion of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship
MSI format is changing with double-elimination brackets
Fans have been asking for League of Legends biggest international competitions to 'get with the times' and use double-elimination brackets in their esports tournaments. Fans' prayers have been answered as the MSI format will be changing for 2023.
Firstly, MSI will be expanding to 13 teams which will give regions more seeds. And secondly, both the play-in stage and the Bracket Stage will now feature double-elimination brackets.
Play-Ins will feature eight teams: the two seed teams from LEC, LCS and LPL, and one team from LLA, CBLOL, PCS, VCS, and LJL. For the LCK this year, their second seed will go automatically into the bracket stage because of their Worlds triumph.
The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four to compete in best-of-three, double-elimination matches. This format has been used frequently at Valorant international events.
The winners of each group will move onto the Bracket Stage to join the five qualified teams. The winners of respective last-chance qualifier matches in the group stage will be the final teams qualifying for the group stage.
The eight remaining teams will now play in the Bracket Stage. This stage will see eight teams face off in a double-elimination best-of-five bracket. This will include the three winners of Play-Ins, along with LEC1, LCK1 and 2, LPL1 and LCS1.
Worlds will return to Korea for the first time in five years
After five years away from the winningest region in League of Legends history, Riot has announced today that Worlds will be returning to Korea!
"Korea is the birthplace of esports and home of the defending World Champions and we cannot wait to share venues and dates in the coming months." - Riot Games
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Worlds will also have a brand new format
Fans have been asking for Riot Games to change the Worlds format for many years. This year there will finally be some additions to esports biggest event of the year.
The tournament will be divided into three stages, the Play-in, Swiss and Knockouts. Riot is also announcing a new level of qualification known as the Worlds Qualifying series. The Worlds Qualifying series will be a best-of-five series between the fourth seeds from the LCS and LEC.
Here is how each stage will work at Worlds 2023:
Play-in Stage
The Play-in stage will consist of eight teams from the following regions:
- The top 2 teams from VCS, PCS
- The top team from LLA, CBLOL, LJL, and the winner of the WQS
- Play-ins are a pair of four double elimination brackets that will see two teams qualify into the swiss stage. Each group will play a best of three double elimination bracket, with the “upper winner” from one group playing a best of five against the "lower winner" from the other for a spot in the Swiss stage.
Swiss Stage
- To start the Swiss Stage, the two Play-In Stage winners will join the 14 teams that prequalified for Swiss.
- Swiss will feature a five-round, Swiss-style format where teams with the same win-loss record will compete against each other until they achieve 3 wins or 3 losses.
- The stage will begin with each team being randomly paired against a team from a different region. Each of these pairs will play a single best-of-1 match.
- In Round 2, teams will be re-matched against teams that have the same record as them (i.e. teams with a 1-0 record will play against other teams with a 1-0 record). This rematching will continue for a total of five rounds, with teams advancing to the Knockout stage when they reach 3 wins, or being eliminated from the tournament when they reach 3 losses. All of the matches that will either advance or eliminate a team will be best-of-three, and the remaining matches will be best-of-1.
Knockout Stage
- Knockouts will feature 8 teams that qualify from the Swiss Stage, who will be drawn into a single elimination bracket based on their placement from the Swiss Stage. This bracket, which includes Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals, will determine the 2023 World Champion.
All images courtesy of Riot Games
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