How the 5 civil wars of Worlds 2023 turned out

The Swiss Stage of Worlds 2023 featured 5 inter-region civil wars, much to the dismay of fans around the world.

The introduction of the Swiss Stage was supposed to put a stop to the seemingly endless inter-region matches that has plagued the League of Legends World Championship in the past. While the first day brought great match-ups with zero inter-region games, day two of the Swiss Stage could not have been any worse after the live draw showcased five inter-region 'civil wars'.

And to make matters worse, it featured an all-LCK showdown with another Gen.G Esports and T1 match-up as well as a KT Rolster and Dplus KIA series. Given that Worlds 2023 is held in South Korea, this was two games that local fans are already all too familiar with and would have probably preferred to see both squads face teams from a different region. And it wasn't just the LCK who suffered.

The all-LPL match brought together the two biggest teams from China right now, JD Gaming and Bilibili Gaming with yet another rematch. The LEC and LCS are no strangers as well as NRG Esports and Team Liquid battled one another alongside MAD Lions and Team BDS.

NRG EsportsvsTeam Liquid

While Team Liquid does boast a championship-winning lineup that featured two players who lifted the Summoner's Cup, they have looked far from a team that is capable of doing so. Liquid performed well against T1 and managed to get them out of their comfort zone to almost snatch a victory but against NRG Esports, it was a different story. NRG had great control of the match from the get-go as they limited Liquid to just four kills the entire game while Cristian "Palafox" Palafox went berserk with Orianna to get eight kills to his name.

MAD LionsvsTeam BDS

Both MAD Lions and Team BDS have faced one another regularly in the LEC and they did so once more in the Swiss Stage of Worlds 2023. Over this season alone, they have played each other six times with a tied score of 3-3. And it was MAD who pulled away with the lead after they dismantled BDS. Yasin "Nisqy" Dincer's Lissandra proved to be too much to handle as he was the only player to not die in the match while also chipping in with two kills and 10 assists. Both Kim "Chasy" Dong-hyeon and Matyáš "Carzzy" Orság were also able to deal plenty of damage to overwhelm BDS over the course of 30 minutes.

Gen.GvsT1

Gen.G Esports versus T1 have been a pinnacle all-LCK match for some time now and to witness it once more this early on in the Swiss Stage was a bit disappointing. Nonetheless, both teams put on a hell of a match that could have gone either way. Despite T1 taking a strong lead for most of the game thanks to Sang-hyeok "Faker" Lee, it was not enough to keep them in the match. The rest of T1 could not keep up with the pace of Gen.G and were soon outplayed as Hwan-joong "Delight" Yoo's positioning on Rakan was immaculate to set up both Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon and Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan for success. And whenever Gen.G won a teamfight, it was always followed by an objective that led to them outplaying T1.

JD GamingvsBilibili Gaming

In another rematch between JD Gaming and Bilibili Gaming, there wasn't much surprise when JDG emerged victorious, which has been the case for all of its matches against BLG this season. JDG had come out on top numerous times before and this was no different as Jin-hyeok "Kanavi" Seo proved just why he's the world's best jungler with an early game dominance on Jarvin IV. In fact, Kanavi was one of three JDG players that amassed 12 assists each with Zhuo "Knight" Ding and Lou "Missing" Yun-Feng being the other two. And all that was to ensure Jae-Hyuk "Ruler" Park gets a perfect game on Kalista, which he repaid the faith with eight kills and a single death.

KT RolstervsDplus KIA

In the other all-LCK showdown, the 2020 Worlds winners Dplus KIA faced a daunting task against their fellow countrymen in KT Rolster. Both teams have faced one another four times this season with KT coming out on top on three occasions. Today was KT's fourth win against Dplus and its first on the international stage as they held Dplus to just four kills the entire game. And on the other end, it was Kim "Aiming" Ha-ram who carried the team across the finish line with his Xayah getting nine kills to go with zero deaths and six assists. Even his teammates saw plenty of action with the likes of Siwoo "Lehends" Son and Kim "Kiin" Gi-in getting 11 assists apiece while Bo-Seong "bdd" Kwak had 12.

Worlds 2023 Swiss Stage - 3rd Round Draw

Straight after the second round of the Worlds 2023 Swiss Stage was over, it went straight to the live draw and unlike today, there will only be one civil war series tomorrow between JD Gaming and LNG Esports with the other featuring G2 Esports against Gen.G Esports. Both matches will be a best-of-three series as it is an advancement series to determine the first two teams that will head for the Knockout Stage of Worlds 2023.

Saturday, October 21

G2 Esports vs Gen.G - 4:00 p.m. KST
JD Gaming vs LNG Esports 7:00 p.m. KST

As for teams in the 1-1 bracket, they will be playing on Sunday, October 22 in a best-of-one series for a total of four matches on the day to see who advances closer to the Knockout Stage or who is nearer to the exit. The elimination series will take place on Monday, October 23 that will feature a best-of-three series between Gam Esports against Team Liquid as well as Dplus KIA and Team BDS.

Sunday, October 22