2023 League of Legends World Championship facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
League of Legends
World Championship

2023
Tournament information
Sport	League of Legends
Location	South Korea
Dates	October 10–November 19
Administrator(s)	Riot Games
Tournament format(s)	8 team GSL-style double-elimination bracket play-in stage 16 team swiss stage 8 team single-elimination bracket from quarterfinals onwards
Venue(s)	4 (in 2 host cities) Seoul (play-ins, swiss stage, final) Busan (quarterfinals, semifinals)
Teams	22
Final positions
Champion	T1
Runner-up	Weibo Gaming
Tournament statistics
Attendance	18,000 (Finals)
MVP	Choi "Zeus" Woo-je (T1)
← 2022 2024 →

The 2023 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the thirteenth iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament began in South Korea on October 10 until November 19. Twenty-two teams from nine regions qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits; defending champions DRX failed to do so after losing to Dplus KIA in the 2023 LCK Regional Finals. JD Gaming were in contention to become the first team to complete the "Golden Road", but lost to eventual champions T1 in the semifinals of the knockout stage.

"Gods" (stylized in all caps), performed by NewJeans, was announced as the tournament's theme song. A virtual boyband named "Heartsteel" (stylized in all caps) was unveiled by Riot Games during the event, with Baekhyun from Exo and SuperM, ØZI, Tobi Lou and Cal Scruby representing the group as its human counterpart and in the live performance of their debut song, "Paranoia".

The final took place on 19 November 2023 at the Gocheok Sky Dome, where T1 defeated Weibo Gaming by a 3–0 score, marking the organization's record-extending fourth World Championship. The event's concurrent viewership reached a peak of 6.4 million viewers, breaking the all-time viewership record for a single esports event.

Format changes

Starting from 2023, teams from LCL (CIS), TCL (Turkey), and LCO (Oceania) region no longer qualified directly for Worlds due to their leagues being cancelled (LCL, by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine) and downgraded (TCL was merged into LEC, LCO was merged into PCS).

The number of teams was decreased from 24 to 22 compared to 2022. For seedings, first-seeded teams from PCS (Asia-Pacific) and VCS (Vietnam) were relegated to start in the play-in stage, while fourth-seeded teams from LCK (South Korea), LPL (China) and third-seeded from LEC (EMEA) and LCS (North America) were promoted to the main event. Prior to the kick off of the tournament, a "Worlds Qualifying Series" match between the fourth-seeded teams from LEC and LCS was played to decide the last team for the play-in stage.

Play-in groups were changed to a GSL-style double-elimination format, while main event's first stage was changed from a double round-robin group stage to a Swiss format.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the event:

Venues

The Swiss Stage was played at KBS Arena (pictured above is the match between T1 and BLG)

Seoul and Busan were the two cities chosen to host the tournament.

South Korea
Seoul		Busan	Seoul
Play-in Stage	Swiss Stage	Quarterfinals & Semifinals	Finals
LoL Park	KBS Arena	Sajik Indoor Gymnasium	Gocheok Sky Dome
Capacity: 450	Capacity: 1,824	Capacity: 14,099	Capacity: 16,744

Ranking

Team ranking