League of Legends Worlds 2023: Everything You Need to Know

The 2023 Season World Championship (Worlds 2023) is the conclusion of the 2023 League of Legends esports season. The tournament will be held in South Korea. The prize pool for this clash of titans is expected to be between $2.25 million and $3 million (HOT DAMN).

This glorious event is set to start on October 10th and it can not come sooner. Hype is real and for the rest of us who will be watching in the comfort of our rooms, preparation has already started. Plans for taking vacation days, coming up with excuses to take sick days, gathering snacks and beverages, and informing friends and family that we will be swamped during those days.

For this spectacle, 22 teams have been invited and it will be held in 3 stages.

Those 3 stages are:

• Play-In
  • Eight teams participate
  • Teams are drawn into two double-elimination brackets.
    • Matches are best of three
  • The upper bracket winner of one group will face the lower bracket winner of the other group
    • Matches are best of five
  • Winners of the best of fives advance to Stage 2
• Swiss
  • 16 teams participate
    • 14 teams prequalified for Stage 2 + the 2 qualifiers of Stage 1
  • Swiss-style format with five rounds
  • Matchups will be drawn at the end of each round
  • Teams with three wins advance to Stage 3, while teams with three losses are eliminated
  • Qualification and Elimination matches are best of three; all other matches are best of one
• Knockout
  • Eight qualifiers from Stage 2 participate
  • Single elimination bracket
  • Matches are best of five

Let’s talk some more about each stage in the sense of who, where, and what is gonna happen.

Play-in

It will be held in LoL Park in Seoul from October 10th to 15th.

Eight teams will compete in the best of 3 matches(BO5 in the last round), and after going through a serious set of trials and tribulations, only 2 teams who prove themself worthy shall pass to compete in the next stage.

Swiss – Main Event

Now this is where things get very serious, 2 teams from the previous stage join 14 teams who are anxiously waiting to get their claws out.

The event will happen in KBS Arena in Seoul from October 19th.

So what is the Swiss format?

Swiss format consists of 16 teams competing against each other up to 5 rounds. Teams with the same win-loss record will compete against each other until they achieve 3 wins or 3 losses. All matches that will either advance or eliminate a team will be best of 3, and the remaining matches will be best of 1.

Teams that prequalified for this stage are :

Bilibili Gaming

⁠Cloud9

⁠Dplus KIA

⁠Fnatic
⁠
⁠G2 Esports

⁠Gen.G
⁠
⁠JD Gaming

⁠KT Rolster

⁠LNG Esports

⁠MAD Lions

⁠NRG

⁠T1

⁠Team Liquid

⁠Weibo Gaming

Knockout stage

Eight victorious teams from the Swiss stage advance and they fight in the quarterfinals in the best of 5 matches and the winners go to the semi-finals.

Matches will be held in Sajik Indoor Gymnasium in Busan from Nov 2nd to Nov 5th(Quarterfinals) and from Nov 11th to Nov 12th(Semi-finals).

AND NOW THE BIG THING, the event of events, a place where all roads lead, THE FINALS.

Two teams (DUH) will be competing against each other in the best of 5 to determine who goes home with a trophy and the prize money.

Finals will be happening on Nov 19th in Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.

Predictions

This is worlds 2023 we’re talking about – predicting who might win is not as easy as it used to be. Now you might be thinking “Ugh NO, I kNoW wHaT tEam is GoNa wIN, it’s  GoNA bE [insert favorite team here]”.

And to that I say, I sure do hope so buddy. But also we need to consider they could play brilliantly and choke in the finals or choke altogether and not even make it to the quarterfinals(you know what I’m talking about). 

When and Where to watch

For all of us who will be watching from the comfort of our homes, we can do so on the official stream of Riot games on Twitch. 

And if you are not sure when, dont worry, I got you covered.

Here is the list of dates and exact times of streams:

Play-In Stage

All matches begin at 12 a.m. PST / 4 p.m. KST unless otherwise noted:

Tuesday, October 10

Wednesday, October 11

Thursday, October 12

Friday, October 13

Saturday, October 14

Sunday, October 15 – 8 p.m. PST (Oct. 14) / 12 p.m. KST

Swiss Stage

All matches begin at 12 a.m. PST / 4 p.m. KST unless otherwise noted:

Thursday, October 19 – 10 p.m. PST (Oct. 18) / 2 p.m. KST

Friday, October 20 – 10 p.m. PST (Oct. 19) / 2 p.m. KST

Saturday, October 21

Sunday, October 22

Monday, October 23

Thursday, October 26

Friday, October 27

Saturday, October 28

Sunday, October 29 – 9 p.m. PST (Oct. 28) / 1 p.m. KST

Knockout Stage

All matches begin at 1 a.m. PST / 5 p.m. KST unless otherwise noted:

Thursday, November 2

Friday, November 3

Saturday, November 4

Sunday, November 5

Saturday, November 11

Sunday, November 12

Bottom Line

In the end, what can I say but you’re welcome!

On the serious side, it’s going to be an interesting few weeks, and let’s enjoy it and have lots of fun while watching and cheering for our favorite team. I’ll be watching streams very closely, so see you there.

Uh, well, bye.