Riot Games has decided to introduce significant changes to the professional tournament format and SoloQ matches in League of Legends for 2023.
The ranked season will be divided into two resets. The first reset, or Split, began in January 2023, while the second Split will start in the middle of the year with the exact date to be determined later. Significant changes are also expected in professional tournaments/leagues.
After the necessary “renovation” of some of the highest quality LoL leagues in the world, it’s time to do the same with the two biggest international tournaments of the season: MSI and Worlds.
Mid-Season Invitational (MSI)
MSI returns to Europe, and this year’s host will be London. Thirteen teams (instead of the previous eleven) from around the world will participate in the tournament. The competition format has changed, and we will now have two double-elimination phases: Play-In and Bracket.
The four highest quality leagues in the world (LEC, LCK, LPL, and LCS) will have two representatives each at the tournament, while one spot is reserved for teams from smaller leagues: LLA, CBLOL, PCS, VCS, and LJL.
The league from which the current world champion in LoL comes from will have a representative directly in the Bracket phase. Since the winner of Worlds 2022 is from the South Korean LCK league, this means that the LCK league will have both representatives in the Bracket phase.
In the Play-In phase, eight teams will participate, divided into two groups of four teams each. Matches will be played in the Bo3 format, and the group winners, as well as the best team in the Last Chance Qualification, will qualify for the Bracket phase of the tournament.
In the Bracket phase, we will see eight teams playing matches in the Bo5 format, after which we will have the MSI tournament winner.
You can find out more about this update here.
Worlds
The League of Legends World Championship, or Worlds, will be held in South Korea this year, with 22 teams participating in the tournament. The new format includes three phases: Play-In, Swiss, and Knockout.
The Worlds Qualifying Series phase precedes the main event, where the fourth-best team from the European LEC league and the fourth-best team from the North American LCS league will compete in a Bo5 format, and the winner will qualify for Worlds. Riot Games plans to expand the Worlds Qualifying Series in the future to include more regions and teams.
In the Play-In phase, 8 teams will compete in a Bo3 format, divided into two groups that will play according to the knockout phase principle (upper and lower part of the bracket). The winner of the upper part of one group’s bracket will face the winner of the lower part of the other group’s bracket, and the top two teams from this phase will advance to the Swiss phase.
In the Swiss phase, a total of 16 teams will compete (the top 2 teams from the Play-In phase and 14 teams who have qualified directly for the Swiss phase). Matches will be played according to the Swiss format in five rounds, where teams with the same number of wins and losses will play against each other until they achieve 3 wins or 3 losses. In the first part of the Swiss phase, each team will be randomly paired with a team from another group, and all matches will be Bo1.
Considering the fact that teams will be paired based on their win-loss ratio, we can expect a lot more high intense matches which is a great news for all LoL betting fans. There will be more matches with high odds to bet on since favorites won’t play against underdogs so often. This is exactly what the LoL betting scene needs, and hopefully, more tournaments will adapt this format.
