- Fans have for a long time wanted changes to the mid-seasonal invitational and the Worlds
- Riot is finally making some changes for the 2023 competitive season
- One of the more controversial ones is making the tournaments single elimination
The two biggest competitive League of Legends events of the year recently got some coveted changes, but not everyone is happy.
Changes Are Coming
Fans of competitive LoL have, for some years now, requested format changes to the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship – the most important tournaments of the competitive season. The reasons for this are many but after a recent press conference in San Francisco, the fans have a reason to celebrate, as Riot Games has finally implemented changes for both events.
Riot Games’ global head of League esports Naz Aletaha updated fans about Riot’s plans for 2023. “Format changes are coming [to MSI and Worlds],” she said. “When we heard the feedback last year, we took this season to really dive into it, and to really start to access what parts of the format were working, what parts we think could use improvements, working with our regional teams around the world to beat out what these formats can and should be.”
Although it’s clear that big changes are coming to the competitive League of Legends scene, Aletaha did not go into detail about the specific changes headed to the two tournaments. However, she did say that we can expect more detailed information at the start of the new season.
Not Everyone Is Happy
The changes were something that many fans have been wanting for years, but it seems not all of them will be what everybody expected. John Needham, Riot’s president of esports, followed up Aletaha’s announcement with the news that Worlds’ knockout stage will remain single elimination next year. This is not great news for many fans, as they think this might make the events a bit less interesting to watch.
At the end of the day, Worlds is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet,” Needham said. “All of the biggest sporting events on the planet have single elimination as a core part of their tournament, and at least from knockouts forward, we will be continuing with single elimination because that puts the stakes at the very highest level,” he explained Riot’s reasoning for taking this decision.
A double-elimination format indeed drags out the events, but this is exactly what many fans enjoy. The extra matches give the best storyline, for many fans, and they give teams a second chance at life if they’re thrown into a Finals-level matchup early into the stage.
But it seems Riot’s decision is final, so let’s hope that it’s a step in the right direction.
