LoL Worlds Returns to South Korea in 2023

Riot Games has announced that the Worlds 2023 tournament will make its return to South Korea. Last year, a South Korean team won the trophy, and this year the company has decided to give the honors to the country. Despite how successful Korean teams have been in history, the Worlds event was lastly held in the country in 2018 and the winner was the Chinese team, Invictus Gaming.

Out of all the LoL tournaments that are being held throughout every season, Worlds is surely the biggest and the most important of all. Fans from all around the world wait until the end of the season to see who will lift the trophy. The road of every team until the last stage is also what the community loves to watch. Every year, Riot Games takes the trophy somewhere else in the world.

Last year, it was held in North America and Mexico and this time, Riot decided to take it to Asia and make South Korea the host. Today, LoL Esports officially kicked off the 2023 Season and it was announced referring to it.

Lol Worlds Finals 2019 Crowd
@ Riot Games

Previous Worlds Hosts

Last year, Riot Games held the play-in stage in Mexico, and the rest of the tournament was held in different states of the USA, New York City, Atlanta, and San Francisco. In Riot Games’ words, South Korea is the birthplace of esports and the home of the defending World Champions.

LoL Worlds Returning to South Korea Once Again

The last time this tournament took place in South Korea was five years ago, back in 2018. Invictus Gaming dominated the tournament from start until the end and swept Fnatic to lift the trophy in front of the Korean crowd. In that tournament, there was one Chinese, one North American, and two European teams who qualified for the semifinal challenge, very interesting considering the dominance of Asian teams in international events. Afreeca Freecs and KT Rolster were the only teams that made it out of the group stage but both got eliminated in the quarterfinals.

More interesting news about the upcoming Worlds tournament is the format changes that were announced by Riot in the same blog post. The traditional group stage format has been replaced with a new Swiss-style stage. The play-in stage has also had its changes. Looks like it will be a whole new adventure for the LoL Worlds betting enthusiasts as the format is different from the usual one and teams will react differently to it.

This will be the third international League of Legends event that will be hosted by South Korea. The country holds the defending champion title thanks to DRX’s incredible run last year. Venues, schedules, and more will be announced in the upcoming days as none were mentioned in the blog post. As mentioned, this will be a whole new breath for League of Legends betting but the picture will be clearer after the venue and schedule announcements for sure.

Luke Warr
Luke Warr

Since: April 6, 2022

Luke is an esports content specialist, with in-depth knowledge and passion in Esports & iGaming markets, with over 5 years of experience in emerging technologies in relation to crypto, blockchain, AI and esportsbooks.

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