League of Legends World Championship 2023 Survival Guide

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Worlds 2023 is upon us as South Korea plays host to the biggest League of Legends tournament of the year.

The League of Legends Worlds Championship 2023 is finally upon us with the top 22 teams in the world set to compete against one another to hoist the highly coveted Summoner's Cup. With the end of the Worlds Qualifying Series that saw Team BDS take down Golden Guardians earlier today, the stage is now set as the best teams in the world will compete to see who is the best of them all.

However, this year's rendition of Worlds brings about a new format once the Play-In Stage is completed. Unlike its predecessors, this year's Worlds will not feature a group stage format. Instead, teams will now play in a Swiss stage format for the first time. The Swiss stage format has been used in esports for quite some time now, especially in other esports titles like CS:GO and Rocket League.

Worlds 2023 - Venue

This will be the first time since 2018 that the world championship is making its appearance in South Korea. The last time this happened, Invictus Gaming lifted the Summoner's Cup after it defeated Fnatic 3-0 in the grand finals. To add further insult to injury, only two LCK teams made it to the playoffs that year but both would get eliminated in the quarterfinals.

Both parts of the Play-In Stage will be held at the famed LoL Park, which is also home to the LCK. Once that is concluded, the Swiss stage will take place at the KBS Arena Hall, which is also in Seoul. The knockout stage will be split into two separate venues with Sajik Arena in Busan being the host of the quarterfinals and semifinals. As for the grand finals, it will be held at Gocheok Sky Dome.

Worlds 2023 - Format & Schedule

Unlike the years before, the play-in stage for Worlds 2023 will now feature just two groups of four teams each. All eight teams will play a best-of-three, double-elimination bracket within their groups to determine who will be the top two that move on to the next round. Once that is concluded, the remaining four teams will move to the second round of the play-in stage where they will play a best-of-five series to determine the final two teams that will head to the Swiss stage.

The first round of the play-in stage will take place from October 10 - 14 while the second round will be on October 15. From there, we begin with the Swiss stage, which will happen from October 19 - 23 as well as October 26 - 29. In the first round of games, all 16 teams will be randomly paired against other teams from a different region. From there, rounds two to five will be based on a team's win-loss record.

The first two rounds of the Swiss stage will be a best-of-one whilst rounds three to five will be a best-of-three as it will determine qualification or elimination. Teams will need three wins to move on to the knockout phase but three losses will get you eliminated from the tournament. Only the top eight teams will be able to qualify for the knockout round whilst everyone else will be eliminated.

Speaking of the knockout round, the quarterfinals will take place from November 2 - 5 while the semifinals will fall on November 11 and 12 with the grand finals happening on November 19. The knockout stage will be a single-elimination bracket with every series being a best-of-five. Teams from the Swiss stage with a higher rank will have side-selection privilege in the quarterfinals, which allows them to choose the side for the first match. After that, the losing team will decide the side for the next match. Once past the quarterfinals, side selection will be determined by coin flip.

Worlds 2023 - Teams

These are the eight teams that will be competing in the play-in stage:

Group A	Group B
GAM Esports	CTBC Flying Oyster
LOUD	DetonatioN FocusMe
PSG Talon	Team BDS
Movistar R7	Team Whales

Only the top two will move on to the Swiss stage, which will be a 16-team bracket.

What to expect at Worlds 2023

For starters, JD Gaming will be looking to make it two international titles for two in a year after they defeated fellow LPL Bilibili Gaming at the Mid-Season Invitational. Both JDG and BLG have been arguably China's best teams at the moment and it will be hard to put a stop to the Chinese's reign in South Korea once more. While both T1 and Gen.G are the nation's best bet at stopping the LCK, both teams have faired well in international competition this year after finishing third and fourth respectively at MSI.

However, both regions will also have a couple of dark horses up their sleeves with KT Rolster and Dplus KIA hoping to bring some much-needed cheer to the home crowd. The last time KT made it to Worlds was when it was held in Korea back in 2018 and the org managed a top-eight finish, something it will hope to replicate this year as well.

Meanwhile, the likes of LNG Esports and Weibo Gaming will also provide some much-needed firepower for the LPL. While LNG is making only its second appearance at Worlds as an org, this will be Weibo's first-ever outing at a major international event. Rounding up the Swiss stage will be three teams from the LEC and LCS respectively.

NRG's reappearance into League of Legends has been nothing short of a success so far after it bought over Counter Logic Gaming's LCS slot as it makes its debut at Worlds 2023. The likes of Cloud9 and Team Liquid will also be hoping to leave a lasting impression with the latter finally making a return after missing out last year. C9 will be looking for a better performance at Worlds this season as it was in 2018 when they went as far as the semifinals - the only time C9 ever finished in the top four of an international event.

Read More: NRG acquired CLG's roster and LCS slot

Lastly, there is the LEC with the likes of G2 Esports, Fnatic, and MAD Lions. While MAD can be proud of its performances having made four straight features at Worlds, the org has never gone as far as the quarterfinals of the knockout stage. Fnatic, on the other hand, can boast as the only European team to lift a world title. Unfortunately, the Summoner's Cup only came into play in 2012, which meant that no Western team has ever won it.

However, G2 remains the LEC's best bet at lifting the Summoner's Cup as it is the only other team to win an international event, which was MSI 2019. G2 came unbelievably close at Worlds that year only to finish second to FunPlus Phoenix. While G2 remains the most established LEC org with 11 regional titles, they will have to prove their worth at Worlds once again to ensure they remain the best LEC team.

Group A of the Play-In Stage will kick off Worlds 2023 with PSG Talon and Rainbow7 as the first series of the day at 4:00 p.m. KST. This is followed by GAM Esports versus LOUD, which will happen at 7:00 p.m. KST. Be sure to catch all the action on the official LoL Esports Twitch channel.