The new year is here which means it’s time for the top esport scene in the world to start back up after a long offseason. Riot Games released their annual cinematic to draw the hype of League of Legends gamers and esports fans as the new season closes in. Whether you enjoyed the cinematic or left disappointed (which is the popular online opinion), Riot released a lot of information for the upcoming esports season.
Aside from the previously announced 2023 Kickoff event, Riot announced the location of 2023’s Mid-Season Invitational. MSI will take place in London, England. MSI will also feature a new format which will see the field of teams expand from 11 to 13. It will feature two double-elimination stages: The Play-In Stage and the Bracket Stage. The Play-In stage will feature the two seed teams from all regions except for the LCK (Korea) which will have an auto-bid into the Group Stage. The Bracket Stage will feature eight teams (three teams from Play-Ins along with the one seed teams) and compete in a double elimination, best-of-five bracket style format.
The largest esport event in the world returns to South Korea after five years. Like MSI, Worlds 2023 will have a new format starting with the all new Worlds Qualifying Series. This Series will feature a best-of-five match between the 4th seed from LCS (North America) and LEC (Europe). The winner of the series will move on to the main Worlds competition in the Play-In stage along with seven other teams. The top seeds to qualify for Worlds will start in the Swiss Stage. The Swiss-style format will place teams with the same win-loss record against each other until they either have three wins or three losses. The Swiss stage begins with teams being randomly paired against teams from another region in a best-of-one format. In Round 2, the teams will be rematched against teams with the same record as them. The rematching continues for five rounds, with teams advancing to the Knockout stage when they reach three wins, or being knocked out from the tournament when they are defeated three times. The format is best-of-one unless a match will allow for a team to advance or be eliminated, in which those matches will be a best of three. The Knockout round remains the same and will feature eight teams battling for the Worlds 2023 Championship.
Venue locations have not been announced as of yet for MSI or Worlds.
Image from: Riot Games
