LoL Worlds 2023 preview

Worlds 2023 is scheduled to start on October 10 and will last until November 19. For six weeks, 22 of the world’s best LoL teams will compete for the prestigious trophy of the game’s biggest championship.

Many fans are hopeful that T1 can win, so that Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok can get his 4^th title. He’s by far the most decorated player in the history of the game, but he hasn’t won a Worlds trophy since 2016. Last year, he played in the Grand Final but lost against DragonX.

Participants

The teams who will take part in this year’s edition of Worlds come from around the globe. The strongest leagues are LPL (China), LCK (South Korea), LEC (Europe), and LCS (North America). The winner will likely be either from China or South Korea. Apart from these two regions, nobody seems to have the strength required to be a serious contender.

Here are the 22 participants:

• G Esports
• T1
• KT Rolster
• Dplus
• JD Gaming
• Bilibili Gaming
• LNG Esports
• Weibo Gaming
• G2 Esports
• Fnatic
• MAD Lions
• NRG
• Cloud9
• Team Liquid
• PSG Talon
• Rainbow7
• GAM Esports
• LOUD
• CTBC Flying Oyster
• DetonatioN FocusMe
• Team Whales
• To be decided (Worlds Qualifying Series)

The final team will be the winner of the match between Team BDS and Golden Guardians. In all likelihood, Golden Guardians will win.

#Worlds2023 returns to Korea with a brand-new tournament format.

Here’s everything you need to know! pic.twitter.com/FDM6LXdhfJ

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) September 14, 2023

Format

This year, Worlds uses a very unusual format relative to the tournament’s tradition. There will be two play-in rounds, followed by a Swiss System format competition, followed by the knockout stage, which will involve just eight teams.

The format doesn’t leave much room for error, and the knockout stage is single-elimination. On the bright side, every match during this stage is a best-of-five series, so the losers cannot complain that they were unlucky.

Favorites

The favorites of Worlds 2023 are all from China and South Korea. Around four teams are realistically fighting for the trophy:

• G Esports
• T1
• JD Gaming
• Bilibili Gaming

Almost for certain, two of them will play in the Grand Final and one of them will win. For the fans, the only question is which one. Based on what we saw at Mid-Season Invitational, JD Gaming seem to be unstoppable at the moment.

China has had a great season so far and it’s about time that a Chinese team conquers the world again. But Faker will be there to stop it from achieving its ambitions.

Header: Riot Games