A View to Worlds

Dec 8, 2023

For a high level view check out the Format Explainer that we just dropped!

For a more in depth look read on below!

A View to Worlds

This is it, folks. The pinnacle of LoR's competitive scene; the very best that our game has to offer, and the one time in the Runeterra year when regional barriers are gone and cross-shards shine.

On December 14th, LoR Worlds 2023 will commence, and after three days of grueling battles a new LoR Champion will rise.

Let's review the who, when, how, and what's at stake!

Meet Your Champions

Sixty-four players from APAC, Americas and EMEA will face each other to find out who really is the best of the best.

One of them, Aragornn, is the reigning LoR Champion and got his ticket straight to LoR Worlds 2023 after taking the crown last year.

The other sixty-three competitors fought and earned their spots either by winning a Seasonal tournament, a Worlds Qualifier tournament, the Last Chance Qualifier three weeks ago, or by topping the Seasonal/ Yearly Runeterra Points race.

If you'd like to meet each of them, Boulevard has profiled every competitor from the Americas, EMEA and APAC shards.

For a detail of how each competitor got to Worlds, Riot works hand in hand with Aegis Esports to tabulate and cross-check the results from each official tournament and ranked season. Aegis Esports maintains a spreadsheet with a tally of each competitor's positionion and Runeterra Points where you can check, season by season, how every top player fared. The Runeterra Report keeps a simplified version on their website, based on Aegis' tally.

Your Hosts

Riot has also partnered with Aegis Esports to bring you LoR Worlds this year:

That's right! We're excited to officially announce our partners for this year's Runeterra Worlds will be Aegis Esports!:sunglasses: Catch you in December for #LoRWorlds23. https://t.co/FmyaNG90zv

— Legends of Runeterra (@PlayRuneterra) November 14, 2023

And they have assembled quite the team!

Boulevard and Scarzig will join 2021 World Champ Alanzq on the desk – just like the three of them did during Worlds 2022 – with Nekkra and Spidz offering additional insights and coverage.

All three days of Worlds 2023 will consist of seven rounds:

• Each round will last for roughly one hour,
• Round #1 will start at about 7:00 a.m. (PST),
• Round #7 will start at about 1:00 p.m. (PST),
• The day will finish at around 2:00 p.m. (PST).

You can tune in all three days to watch the competition on Twitch and YouTube.

The Stakes

There's a $140,000 USD prize pool at stake at Worlds. Our next Champion will take home $30,000 USD, the runner-up will earn $12,000 USD, and the rest will be distributed to the remaining competitors based on their performance.

Winner and runner-up will also earn the Architect of Legends perk: they'll get to partner with one of LoR's Designers to design a new card. Our new World Champion will help design a follower, while the runner-up collaborates on a spell.

How Worlds Works

Our competitors will battle for three days, and bring three-deck lineups to the fray.

On Day One, all sixty-four players will compete against each other and the top sixteen will move on to the next day. Day Two will select the top eight, and on Day Three a new LoR Champions will rise.

Standard Format, "Riot-Lock" Lineups

Each competitor will bring three Standard decks, with the following restrictions (usually nicknamed "Riot Lock"):

• Each deck needs to have different region combinations – you can repeat the same region in more than one deck, but not the exact same pair. If your first deck uses Ionia and Demacia, you could use Ionia again in your second deck and Demacia in your third, but you cannot have another deck with the Ionia-Demacia pair,
• You're only allowed to bring each champion once – if you use Gwen in one deck, you cannot play her in any of your other two decks,
• You can have one deck with no Champions, but not more than one.

At the start of each match, each player bans one deck from their opponent's lineup; those decks can't be used during this particular confrontation.

Then you have to be the first to achieve two victories to win the match, with one caveat: If you win with a deck, then that deck becomes banned, too, and you can now only use your third deck.

Day #1 – Seven Rounds of Swiss

On Day One of LoR Worlds 2023, all 64 players will compete through seven rounds of Swiss.

If you are familiar with the Runeterra Opens (or with the Swiss rounds system generally), then you already have a fairly good idea about how Day One will work…

… but just in case "Swiss" brings to mind cheese, chocolate, and army knives: In LoR Worlds 2023, "Swiss" is a tournament format.

In the first round, players will be paired randomly. After the first round, winners will be pitted against winners, and losers will play against other losers.

From there onwards, players will be matched against players with similar win/loss records. Everybody that wins at least five matches is guaranteed to make it into the Top 16 and move to Day Two.

A couple of players that win four matches may make Top 16 too; to select from among those with four wins, the first tiebreaker will be game scores (that's to say, winning a match 2:0 is better than winning the match 2:1, and losing 1:2 is better than losing 0:2), and the second tiebreaker their opponents' win percentage.

The first round of Day One will start at 7:00 a.m. (PST), with Aegis Esports providing coverage of selected matches from each and all rounds.

Day One will end at 2:00 p.m. (PST), after seven rounds, and the top 16 players will advance to Day Two.

Day #2 – Double Elimination to Top Eight

While Day One will operate similarly to any of this year's Runeterra Opens, Day Two has a unique format: Double Elimination.

Rather than competing in all rounds (like in a Swiss tournament), each player has only two chances. If you lose a match, you move to the loser's bracket. If you lose again, you're out of Worlds – that's why it's called double elimination.

The winners stay in the winner's bracket until they lose once, in which case they move to the loser's bracket.

Day Two will consist of seven rounds until only eight players remain:

• Two players from the winner's bracket with a perfect record of three wins and no losses, and
• Six players from the loser's bracket with two wins and one loss.

Round #	Start	End	Event
1	7:00 AM	8:00 AM	First Round (eight matches in parallel)
2	8:00 AM	9:00 AM	Winner's Quarters #1 + Loser's Bracket Round #1 (five matches in parallel)
3	9:00 AM	10:00 AM	Winner's Quarters #2
4	10:00 AM	11:00 AM	Winner's Quarters #3
5	11:00 AM	12:00 PM	Winner's Quarters #4
6	12:00 PM	1:00 PM	Winner's Semifinals #1 + Loser's Bracket Round #2 (five matches in parallel)
7	1:00 PM	2:00 PM	Winner's Semifinals #2

Day #3 – There Can Only Be One

Day Three will continue the double elimination from Day Two, with no bracket reset. The very best LoR players will finish their Top Eight until we crown our 2023 LoR World Champion.

Like the previous two days, Day Three will consist of seven rounds – the Grand Finals is a singular, winner-takes-all match.

Editor’s Note: Just to clarify further, if the loser bracket contestant wins, there will be no breaker reset and they will be the World Champion.

Round #	Start	End	Event
1	7:00 AM	8:00 AM	Loser's Bracket Round #3 (two matches in parallel)
2	8:00 AM	9:00 AM	Loser's Bracket Round #4
3	9:00 AM	10:00 AM	Loser's Bracket Round #4
4	10:00 AM	11:00 AM	Winner's Bracket Finals
5	11:00 AM	12:00 PM	Loser's Bracket Semifinals
6	12:00 PM	1:00 PM	Loser's Bracket Finals
7	1:00 PM	2:00 PM	Grand Finals

LoR Worlds 2023 – Dates and Times

• Dec 14th, Day One: Seven rounds of Swiss to select the Top 16.
• Dec 15th, Day Two: Seven rounds of Double Elimination to select the Top 8.
• Dec 16th, Day Three: Seven rounds to finish the loser's bracket from Day Two, the winner's finals, and the Grand Finals.
• Coverage and first round will commence each day at 7:00 a.m. (PST).
• Each round will last roughly one hour; the seventh round each day is scheduled between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. (PST).

Aegis Esports will produce the coverage for LoR Worlds 2023 – you can tune in all three days to watch the competition on Legends of Runeterra's official Twitch and YouTube channels.