With Worlds 2023 approaching, here is what we know so far about the tournament.
Riot is approaching the end of the League of Legends Esports season, as Worlds 2023 is going to start in October. It will be starting shortly after the Asian Games 2022 concludes for League of Legends. So far, a lot of things have been revealed about Worlds 2023.
Worlds 2023 will be hosted in Korea in Seoul and Busan at different stadiums. Also, we know which teams will be participating in Worlds 2023. We had the Play-In Stage Draw after the LEC Finals concluded. Furthermore, the Worlds Qualifying Series will be held just before Worlds 2023 starts.
The Worlds patch will be Patch 13.19, where Naafiri will be enabled. That said, the tournament is approaching soon, and here is what we know about Worlds 2023 thus far.
Read More: Briar Receives A Hotfix Buff In Patch 13.18
Format
First, let’s start with the format for Worlds 2023. The entire tournament is divided into three stages: the Play-In Stage, the Swiss Stage, and the Knockout Stage. Here is a breakdown of the changes:
Play-In Stage
There will be eight teams participating in this Stage. From here, two teams will be qualifying for the Swiss Stage. The entire format is two Double Elimination Brackets, out of which we will get two Upper Bracket and Lower Bracket Winners. After that, the Upper Bracket Winner of one group will play the Lower Bracket Winner of the other group.
Only 7 teams have been confirmed, while the 8th team will be decided from the Worlds Qualifying Series. The brackets look as follows.
All the ten matches shown above will be best of threes, while the match between the Upper vs. Lower Bracket teams will play a best of five to book a ticket to the Swiss Stage. All the games will be held in LoL Park in Seoul.
Two teams will be promoted to the Swiss Stage as part of Pot 4. The Play-In Stage will run from Tuesday, October 10, 2023, until Sunday, October 15, 2023.
Swiss Stage
This is the biggest change from Worlds 2022, as Riot is making a huge change by opting for a Swiss Stage.
There will be 16 teams in this Stage, and all the teams will be divided into four Pots. Also, all Play-in teams will be in Pot 4 irrespective of whatever their seed was in their respective region.
- Pot 1: #1 Seeds (JD Gaming, Gen.G, G2 Esports, NRG).
- Pot 2: #2 Seeds (Bilibili Gaming, T1, Fnatic, Cloud 9).
- Pot 3: #3 Seeds (LNG Esports, KT Rolster, MAD Lions, Team Liquid).
- Pot 4: #4 Seeds + Play-In Teams (Weibo Gaming, Dplus KIA, Play-In Team 1, Play-In Team 2).
All the Pot 1 teams will play Pot 4 teams while Pot 2 teams will play Pot 3 teams. Also, for the first draw, no teams from the same region will face each other. So we are going to get cross-region matches in the first Round at least. Teams of the same record will play against each other in the following rounds.
After each round concludes, there will be a draw to determine the next matchups with no restrictions. Teams that win three games will go through to the Knockouts Stage. After that, seeding for the Knockout Stage will be done based on your record in the Swiss Stage.
Side Selection for the Swiss Stage will be based on the initial Pot distribution. Also, teams from the same Pot will have Side Selection based on a coin toss. All the initial games will be best of 1st, while the Elimination/Advancement games will all be best of threes.
All the games will be held from Wednesday, October 19, 2023, to Monday, October 23, 2023, and then Thursday, October 26, 2023, to Sunday, October 29, 2023. Also, all the games will be held in the KBS Arena in Seoul.
Knockout Stage
The Knockout Stage will be similar as in the past. All the teams with a 3-0 record in the Swiss Stage will play against teams with a 3-2 record. The rest of the teams will be drawn to play each other. All the games will be best of fives.
It is a single elimination bracket of all these eight teams where the Winner of the Finals will take home the Summoner’s Cup and become the Worlds 2023 Champions. The Quarterfinals and Semifinals are going to be held in Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan. Also, Quarterfinals will be held from November 2-5, while Semifinals will be held from November 11-12.
Meanwhile, the Finals will be held in the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Sunday, November 19, 2023.
Teams
There will be 22 teams in the tournament, while one of the teams is not confirmed yet. Either Golden Guardian or Team BDS will be in the Play-In Stage. All the teams participating in the tournament are as follows.
Play-In Stage Teams
Here are all the Play-In Stage Teams of Worlds 2023.
- CTBC Flying Oysters
- Detonation FocusMe
- GAM Esports
- LOUD
- Movistar R7
- PSG Talon
- Team Whales
- Team BDS/Golden Guardians
Swiss Stage Teams
The rest of the participating teams are in the Swiss Stage without qualification through the Play-In.
- Bilibili Gaming
- Cloud9
- Dplus KIA
- Fnatic
- G2 Esports
- Gen.G
- JD Gaming
- KT Rolster
- LNG Esports
- MAD Lions
- NRG
- T1
- Team Liquid
- Weibo Gaming
Schedule
Here are all the dates with the local time for all parts of the tournament.
Play-In Stage Schedule
- Play-In Stage Brackets Day 1: Tuesday, October 10 at 4 PM KST.
- Play-In Stage Brackets Day 2: Wednesday, October 11 at 4 PM KST.
- Play-In Stage Brackets Day 3: Thursday, October 12 at 4 PM KST.
- Play-In Stage Brackets Day 4: Friday, October 13 at 4 PM KST.
- Play-In Stage Brackets Day 5: Saturday, October 14 at 4 PM KST.
- Play-In Stage Qualifiers: Sunday, October 15 at 12 PM KST.
Swiss Stage Schedule
- Swiss Stage Week 1 Day 1: Thursday, October 19 at 2 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 1 Day 2: Friday, October 20 at 2 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 1 Day 3: Saturday, October 21 at 4 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 1 Day 4: Sunday, October 22 at 4 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 1 Day 5: Monday, October 23 at 4 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 2 Day 1: Thursday, October 19 at 4 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 2 Day 2: Friday, October 19 at 4 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 2 Day 3: Saturday, October 19 at 4 PM KST.
- Swiss Stage Week 2 Day 4: Sunday, October 19 at 1 PM KST.
Knockout Stage Schedule
- Quarterfinals: Thursday, November 2, 2023 – Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 5 pm KST.
- Semifinals: Saturday, November 11, 2023 – Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 5 pm KST.
Finals
- Finals: Sunday, November 19, 2023 at 5 pm KST.
