Worlds and MSI 2023 format: the Swiss and the loser bracket arrive at LoL

Much has been speculated regarding the format of international League of Legends tournaments and much feedback of the community has had to read Riot Games to make a decision in 2023.

And it is that this year, finally, we will see noticeable changes in the most important League of Legends tournaments, the MSI and Worlds 2023the two tournaments with the most international relevance.

As soon as the year began, Riot wanted to clarify What will the format of both tournaments be like?clearing up a mystery that many will like: there will be double bracket at MSI and a Swiss at Worlds 2023.

MSI 2023 Format

MSI 2023 will be played in Europe, specifically in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. This MSI will be the first to have major format changes:

• 13 teams will compete in the MSI
  • 2 from LCK, 2 from LPL, 2 from LCS, 2 from LEC and one from the rest of the leagues (LLA, CBLOL, VN…)
• First phase of Play-In
  • 8 teams will fight for 3 places for the next phase

• Group stage
  • In this phase there will be 8 teams who will meet in a bracket best of 5 with double elimination
  • It will be the final format with which the tournament champion will be known

Worlds 2023 Format

No headquarters yetbut it is already known what the official format will be like and what intentions Riot Games has regarding its most important tournament.

• It will have three phases: Play-In, Swiss and Elimination
• NEW | The qualifying series for Worlds
  • The World Cup Qualifying Series will be a best-of-5 match between the 4th seed in the LEC and the 4th seed in the LCS. The winner of the match secures the trip to the World Cups.
  • In years to come, we hope to expand the World Ranking Series to include other regions and teams.
• The winner of the WQS, along with 21 other teams, will go on to compete in the World Cups in Korea, 8 of which will start in the group stage. The assignment of these seedings was determined based on each region’s previous international performance.

Format

• The 8 seeds begin the group stage
  • Top 2 teams from VCS, PCSBest team from LLA, CBLOL, LJL and the winner of WQS.
• The 14 seeded players starting in the Swiss phase
  • Top 4 teams in LPL, LCKTop 3 teams in LEC, LCS

play-in

The Play-Ins are a pair of four-team, double-elimination groups that will qualify two teams for the Swiss phase. Each group will play a best-of-three double-elimination groups, with the “top winner” from one group playing a best-of-five against the “bottom winner” from the other group for a place in the Swiss phase.

Swiss

• To kick off the Swiss phase, the two group stage winners will join the 14 seeded teams for the Swiss phase.
• The swiss phase It will consist of a five-round Swiss-style format, in which teams with the same win-loss record will compete against each other until they reach 3 wins or 3 losses.
• The phase will begin with the random pairing of each team against another from a different region. Each of these couples will play a single match to the best of 1.
• In the round 2teams will be rematched against teams with the same record as them (ie teams with a 1-0 record will play other teams with a 1-0 record).
• The teams will go to the knockout phase when they have 3 wins or they will be eliminated from the tournament when they have 3 losses. All matches that advance or eliminate a team will be best-of-3, and the remaining matches will be best-of-1.

elimination phase

• The 8 teams classified in the Swiss phase will participate in the playoffs, which will face each other in a knockout group based on their classification in the Swiss phase. This draw, which includes the quarterfinals, semifinals and final, will determine the 2023 world champion.