League of Legends Worlds 2023 is approaching the Play-In stage in Seoul and will be the starting point for the hottest stage. Despite this, many do not fully know all the details, dates, and interesting facts. In this article, we will briefly describe everything we know so far about LoL Worlds 2023.
Tournament Patch
The main thing that worries the community and players is the patch in the game at the time of the tournament. According to official information, players will fight on Patch 13.19, which generally will not be too different in meta, lack of heroes (as with Orianna and Udyr) and general gameplay. In particular, the patch greatly impacts League of Legends Esports Betting because teams are preparing for it, testing pick-bans, item builds and strategies.
Among the most exciting buffs and nerfs, it is worth noting such heroes as Li-Sin, one of the most stable jungle, Renekton as a strong solo laner, and Galio as a universal hero for the support and mid positions. Among the nerfs, Zeri, who is literally destroyed from patch to patch, but she still appears in picks about scenes and is a rather heavily scaling ADC.
Overall, the patch is interesting and introduced minor but important buffs/nerfs for the pro scene. It’s a Riot classic that many are already accustomed to.
Tournament Schedule
Unlike International Dota 2 tournaments, LoL Worlds takes place over almost a month. The tournament starts from the stage.
Play-Ins (October 10-15), then Group Stage from October 19 to 29, Quarter-Finals from November 11 and 12, and the final will occur at the Gocheok Sky Dome on November 19. In comparison, International Dota 2 will take place from October 8 to October 30, that is, 24 days, unlike LoL Worlds 2023, which will take as much as 40 days. Why is that?
This is Riot’s policy regarding professional tournaments. On the one hand, this is a big plus for pro players: the schedule balances games so that players and coaches have enough time to rest and discuss strategies several days before games. In Dota 2, the games are more active, which is undoubtedly an advantage for spectators, who can watch the games with almost no pauses. But this can be tiring for players, especially during the finals, where the team that wins the lower bracket must play first BO1 and then at least BO3 against the upper bracket winner.
Tournament Teams
The Play-In stage is one of the most stressful for teams since it determines their tournament fate. List of Play-In stage teams:
- Movistar R7
- DetonatioN
- FocusMe
- GAM Esports
- PSG Talon
- CTBC Flying Oyster
- Team Whales
On the one hand, each team has the honour of opening the tournament, but on the other hand, the excitement and tension within the teams will be maximum. But still, the main question remains unresolved – Will Faker play?
Oh yes, the legend has revived the spirit of T1 again, so prepare your online video editors in advance to capture the highlights of the Korean mid-player. But there are other teams whose performance is expected. Along with T1, the following will play on stage:
- Gen.G
- G2 Esports
- Fnatic
- MAD Lions
- Cloud9
- Team Liquid
- NRG
- KT Rolster
- Dplus KIA
- JD Gaming
- Bilibili Gaming
- LNG Esports
- Weibo Gaming
In our opinion, the most expected performance is from G2 Esports because the team has undergone a reshuffle: instead of Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, the jungle position is now occupied by Yike. In general, the replacement only improved the internal mentality of the team, and G2 performed well with this player. By the way, Jankos is now playing for Team Heretics, which, as you noticed, is missing from the list of teams at LoL Worlds 2023.
Prize Pool
Let’s talk about money. At the moment, Riot has not yet announced exact figures regarding the prize fund. But the figure will vary from 2 to 3 U.S. dollars. For the last 4 years, the League of Legends World Championships prize pool has not exceeded 3 million and has stood at around 2.3 million U.S. dollars. Of course, we won’t see the figure of 6.45 million, as it was in 2018, for a long time, but perhaps thanks to various promotions, events, and expensive skins, the LoL Worlds 2023 prize fund will be higher than previous ones.
Money is good, of course, but this tournament is primarily a way to show how much the team has succeeded in training, preparing for opponents, and the personal skill of each player. The title of LoL Worlds winner trumps all money.
Conclusion
The main event of the League of Legends world will begin very soon. Twenty-two teams have been honored to be direct participants. Many people claim that the League of Legends pro scene is boring. In particular, this is true, but this does not reduce the interest in each match of the top team. Statisticians predict more than 5 million viewers, the same number as last year.