In 2023, League of Legends will usher in a new MSI and a new S game, according to the official news released by Riot, this year's MSI and S tournament have relatively large changes, the four major divisions will have two places in MSI, and the S Tournament will cancel the group stage and introduce a tense Swiss round format. Let's look at the details.
First of all, MSI, this year's MSI was held in London, England, from May 2 to May 21, and Asian audiences had to suffer from jet lag. And the number of participating teams increased from 11 to 13. The four major divisions of LPL, LCK, LEC and LCS have two participating teams. Five of the teams went directly to the main tournament and eight teams competed in the play-offs. Our LPL No. 2 seed also has to start with the playoffs.
The MSI format has also been greatly adjusted, with the play-in stage using the BO3 double-elimination format divided into two halves, with the winner of each semi-zone advancing to the main event, and the winner of the two halves of the division having to compete for the final main tournament spot.
The MSI main stage is BO5 double defeat, 8 main teams have a repechage A, losing one can fall into the loser's group, and the winner's group champion and loser group champion compete for the final MSI championship. This is similar to the LPL playoff double-elimination format, except that the double-elimination starts to advance to the quarterfinals. Since there are two places in the four major divisions, it cannot be ruled out that some divisions can win the championship and runner-up, which two teams in the LPL do you think have the best chance of playing?
After watching MSI, let's look at the S race, this year's S Race will be held in South Korea, and the specific date is undecided. There will be 22 teams in this year's S tournament, with four places in both the LPL and LCK, but the No. 4 seed from China and South Korea will not have to make the play-ins. A total of 8 teams will be divided into two halves to play a double-elimination and compete for two promotion places. The winner of each half of the division competes for a place in the loser's division with the winner of the other semi-division, and the same old problem as the LPL - the winner may be eliminated without using the repechage, see how the fist will be arranged on the schedule to compensate for the winner group champion. At the same time, I counted that in the extreme case of the qualifiers, a team would need to play five BO3 games.
Then came the biggest changes to the S-round, which eliminated the traditional group stage and introduced the Swiss round-robin format. The Swiss round format may seem particularly complicated, but it is summed up in five rounds, each with teams with the same record playing each other, winning three of the five rounds to advance to the main draw, and losing three rounds to be eliminated.
For example, the 16 teams in the first round were all 0-0, so the draw was played one-on-one.
The winner of the first round enters the 1-win group in the second round, and the loser of the first round enters the 1-loss group in the second round.
Then each group is played one-on-one, and by the third round there will be three results, 2 wins, 1 win and 2 losses. At this point, each group fights again, and the 2-win group will be born and the 3-win team will advance to the final knockout round first. In the same way, 2 negative teams will also be born, and 3 negative teams will go home early.
The rest of the teams continue to fight until they advance to 3 wins or go home with 3 losses.
After the exciting Swiss round, the 8 advancing teams played a BO5 knockout round by lot, followed by the familiar traditional knockout format, 8 to 4 to 2 until the S13 champion was decided.
In general, Riot also wants to inject a little new vitality into League of Legends events, so it has updated the format. Personally, I think the format has been updated very well, and the most anticipated thing this year is the Swiss round of the S race, because there are no groups, so every team has a chance to meet any opponent. Moreover, its mechanism of rotating screening teams with the same record will surely allow the strongest teams of the 16 teams to meet and stage the finals battle in advance; It is also sure to allow the best rookie chicken teams in the 16 teams to meet and compete for the name of the chef god of the general chewing competition.