2023 Worlds will be held in Korea with a new format

“Korea is the birthplace of esports, home of the defending World Champions and we cannot wait to share venues and dates in the coming months.” This is what the secretary general of the LCK, Aiden Lee, had to say about Riot’s decision. 

Korea will host Worlds in 2023 

After five long years, the most important event on the LoL Esports calendar is coming back to Seoul. The place where the Chinese LPL won its first World Championship. The two regions have juggled the Worlds crown for the time being. But with a new format in place, it will be interesting to see how the circuit works out. 

Instead of the usual 24 teams, the 2023 World Championship will feature 22 teams from across the world. Similarly to the MSI format changes, this is mostly due to the EMEA expansion. But Riot has found a way to make up for it and then some. We get two more layers of competition, including the implementation of the Swiss format popular in CS: GO. 

2023 Worlds format changes

Gone are the days of the Play-In and Group stages. In 2023 we are still going to have a Play-In stage. But now the Group stage is split up in two. A Swiss format bracket and a Knockout stage. And just to spice things up a bit more, Riot has added a Worlds Qualifying Series before all that.

Worlds Qualifying Series

The Worlds Qualifying Series is a new form of competition Riot is implementing. Fans of Western regions are well aware their teams are lacking behind Eastern teams when it comes to international success. But the battle of the egos between Europe and the LCS will finally have a set date. 

Instead of hoping for one to two matchups a year, the 4th seed from the LEC and the 4th seed from the LCS will now battle it out directly. Only one of them will be qualifying for the World Championship, alongside the remaining 21 teams. This best of five series will be the only entry in this year’s edition, but Riot is hopeful to expand it in the following years. Of them, only eight will fight it out in the Play-In stage.

Play-in stage

A total of eight teams will be participating in the Play-In stage at the 2023 League of Legends World Championship. The aforementioned winner of the WQS will be joining the top two teams from the VCS and PCS. Those being the Vietnamese VCS league and the Pacific PCS. The top teams from the Latin America LLA, the Brazilian CBLOL, and the Japanese LJL will also be included. 

Together they will converge in two double elimination brackets composed of four teams each. Every game of the Play-In stage will be a best of three competition, apart from the final two matches. Those will be best of five series between the winner of the upper bracket of one group against the winner of the lower bracket from the other group. These two final matches should give us the winners that will advance to the Swiss stage.

Swiss stage

Here the two winners from the Play-In stage will be slotted alongside the 14 teams that were pre qualified for the Swiss stage. Those include the top four teams from the Chinese LPL and Korean LCK. The three best teams from the European LEC and North American LCS will also join the Swiss format bracket. At its core, this format features five rounds of competition. Teams with the same win-loss record will compete against each other until they achieve 3 wins or 3 losses. 

The Swiss stage will kick off with teams randomly pairing up against teams from other regions. In each round, the winner will play against the other winners, while the losers play against the other losers. Teams will advance to the Knockout stage when they manage three wins and they will be disqualified when they lose three times. All matches will be best of one series except for those that determine advancement or disqualification (third win or third loss for either team). Those deciding matches will be best of three series.

Knockout stage

The eight best teams that will advance through this bloodbath will be placed in the Knockout stage bracket based on their placements in the Swiss stage. The Knockout stage will be a single elimination bracket filled with best of five series. These will play out through the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Grand Finals, giving us the 2023 World Champion.

These and the MSI format changes were demanded by the community for a long time, and thankfully they obliged. With a goal in mind to minimize pointless games and give faltering teams a second chance, they did the right thing. By introducing the new layers of competition they also incentivized cross-regional competition. And that is something fans definitely can’t get enough of, especially when it comes to bragging rights. Upsets, redemptions, and lots of pressure should give us the most deserving team of the World Champion title in 2023.