This year Riot tried something new to give fans a more meaningful experience at the League of Legends World Championship and it apparently worked, with most viewers loving the new Swiss Format.
Throughout the last few years, League of Legends esports fans have been calling upon Riot to make changes to the format of the biggest esports event of the year – the League of Legends World Championship. In 2023 the esports team at Riot listened to the fans and gave them something new and exciting.
So, with the first-ever Swiss Stage concluding in an exciting fashion, the verdict of fans, as well as players, is in and it's looking pretty positive. Did Riot actually succeed at doing something the community liked?
LoL Worlds 2023: Swiss Stage Was A Huge Success
This year Riot made some major adjustments to the tournament format for the two biggest esports events of the year. MSI 2023 featured a double-elimination bracket and Worlds was introduced to a Swiss Format instead of having the usual group format.
Fans loved the MSI format with the double elimination bracket and it seems that the Swiss Format was also a huge success with fans praising it, stating that every single game was meaningful. Not a single pointless or boring game was played out, since every match could dictate the outcome of the bracket.
Swiss stage appreciation thread by u/Conflixx in leagueoflegends
The draws at the end of each day made the swiss stage more exciting and the best of it all was every game matters. Sure it has some flaws but i definitely take this over the previous format.
While the LEC failed to make it out of the Swiss format and field a team in the knockout round for the first time in 9-years, North America finally managed to make it to the next phase of the tournament with a glorious run from NRG at the World Championship.
This is also the first time that all four LPL teams will be competing in the knockout round of the tournament. This is a pretty exciting tournament and while fans will not be getting a double-elimination bracket, the teams that made it out of the Swiss stage are all insanely strong and have showcased this in the Swiss Stage.
Now let's just hope that next year there will be more champion diversity to truly make this format shine and come to life.
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