The Swiss Stage of Worlds 2023 will start this Thursday, October 19.
The Play-In Stage of the League of Legends World Championship is finally over and we have the final two teams that have joined the Swiss Stage: Team BDS and GAM Esports. These two make up the top 16 teams that will battle it out on the Summoner's Rift to see who will go through to the Knockout Stage. This will also be the first year that the League of Legends World Championship is using the Swiss Stage format, having chosen to move past the traditional Group Stage bracket.
But what exactly does the Swiss System format entail for Worlds 2023? Essentially, all 16 teams have been drawn into respective pools where they will face teams from different regions in hopes of better inter-region gameplay. Every team will play at the very least three games and the most, five matches if their run has been inconsistent. The Swiss System is all about pairing teams of a similar score in the next match-up while also ensuring they play a different team each time.
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Worlds 2023 - Swiss Stage
For Worlds 2023, the Swiss Stage has already been drawn to ensure each team is facing an opponent of a different region in the first round. From there, teams that win will be drawn to face other teams that also won their previous match. Teams that reach three wins will move on to the Knockout Stage while teams that suffer three defeats will be eliminated.
All matches will be a best-of-one unless it's an advancement or elimination match-up, which will be a best-of-three. The first round starts this Thursday, October 19 to 23 for the first three rounds, which will also see the first two teams advance as well as get eliminated. The fourth and fifth rounds will begin from October 26 - 29 where the last six teams will qualify while we bid farewell to six other competitors.
Here how the bracket looks like:
T1
vs
Team Liquid  - 2:00 p.m. KST
Cloud9
vs
MAD Lions - 3:00 p.m. KST
Gen.G
vs
GAM Esports - 4:00 p.m. KST
JD Gaming
vs
Team BDSÂ - 5:00 p.m. KST
G2 Esports
vs
Dplus KIAÂ - 6:00 p.m. KST
NRG Esports
vs
Weibo Gaming - 7:00 p.m. KST
Fnatic
vs
LNG Esports - 8:00 p.m. KST
Bilibili Gaming
vs
KT Rolster - 9:00 p.m. KST
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Head-to-head match-ups
Right off the bat, some of the more eye-catching matches that stand out include both Play-In Stage teams going up against two of arguably the best teams in the world right now. BDS will have to go up against the Mid-Season Invitational and undisputed LPL champions, JD Gaming while GAM will face off against the undisputed kings of the LCK this season, Gen.G Esports. And given that all matches will be a best-of-one, anything can happen for both these match-ups.
Another noteworthy match-up that many would be looking forward to is yet another rematch between G2 Esports and Dplus KIA. Both teams have met on three different occasions dating back to the 2019 world championship quarterfinal playoffs G2 won and eventually placed second. Dplus got their revenge the following year when they took G2 out in the semifinals to go on and lift the Summoner's Cup. They would end up grouped at Worlds last year as well with Dplus taking the win in two best-of-one matches.
As always, any match that features T1 will garner plenty of eyeballs and their game against Team Liquid will look to be an exciting opener with five world titles split between the two orgs. There is also another el-classico between the LEC and LCS featuring the likes of Cloud9 and MAD Lions, who last met in the Rumble Stage of MSI 2021. The LPL versus LCK match-up between Bilibili Gaming and KT Rolster could be another blockbuster game with BLG hoping to put an end to its curse of always finishing in the top three but never first.
There is also the 'West vs East' match-up between NRG Esports and Weibo Gaming, two teams that are making their debut at the world championship and could bring something different to the table. While Weibo boasts two players who have previously won a world championship, NRG will have two players who will be making their Worlds debut. The LEC will also do battle with the LPL courtesy of Fnatic and LNG Esports, two teams that have a point to prove in this year's tournament.
Be sure to catch the first day of the Swiss Stage of Worlds 2023 on the official Riot Games Twitch channel.
