At a recent press conference, it was revealed that there will be some major changes coming to international LoL tournaments, but fans aren't happy.
Riot Games has confirmed that change is coming. Is it the change we need yes, but it sure doesn't seem like the change the community wanted. For the past few years fans have complained about the abundance of Bo1's in the biggest esports tournaments for League of Legends and now we might be getting our much-needed update.
But there is more to this than just a lack of best of three games, and one issue seems to be completely overlooked by Riot heading into the 2023 season.
LoL Worlds: Single-Elimination Is Staying
In a press conference, John Needham, Riot Games’ President of esports explained that the biggest sporting events worldwide all have a single-elimination bracket for the finals. Therefore, they're going to keep the single elimination bracket in League of Legends as well.
[...] Worlds is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. All of the biggest sporting events on the planet have a single elimination as a core part of their tournament, and at least from knockouts and forward, we will be continuing with single elimination because that puts the stakes at the very highest level [...]
Fans have been asking for a double elimination bracket at the World Championship for years and other esports events have them, like Dota 2's The International and even the VALORANT Champions' had a double-elimination bracket.
No double elimination? No problem for this champion:
Riot is Working on New Format
Naz Aletaha, Global Head of League of Legends Esports, did explain that after outcry for format changes in 2021 the esports team has been working on bringing new format changes to the international League of Legends scene. These changes should be implemented in 2023.
This could be a change in the group stage with less best-of-one games and focusing on best-of-three games instead for international tournaments. Having teams work the entire year only to lose out because of six best-of-one games feels bad for players and viewers.
I won’t go into [details] of what those should be or will be today, we will announce that by the start of the season. I’m excited to say that new formats are coming to both MSI and Worlds in 2023
So, while Riot hasn't made it official yet what exactly they're looking to update and change in 2023, we will likely find out in a few months. Before then, we will first have to deal with the return of the Chemtech drake in the League of Legends preseason 2023, eh?