League of Legends Worlds 2023 - Play-In preview

The wait is nearly over. The time is nearly upon us once again - League of Legends (LoL) fans worldwide rejoice, as the LoL World Championship (Worlds) looms ever closer. It feels like an age has passed since DRX lifted their trophy, overcoming T1 to become the 2022 and current reigning Worlds champions. This year, it’s a guarantee that we will have a new champion, as DRX failed to even make the Play-In Stage of Worlds 2023. However, there are still traces of the plucky underdogs looking to defend their title, be it Team Liquid’s Jungler, Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon, or Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu of Dplus KIA.

This year’s theme is “THE GRIND. THE GLORY.”, and the Worlds anthem has a music video that focuses on “Deft”’s climb to victory following a career spanning multiple generations of professional play. It’s important to remember that DRX won their championship as the LCK fourth seed. They are a play-ins team who overcame all odds, and rode the bracket and the momentum all the way to the final. A feat no team before them had managed, but one that gives hope to those in the play-ins to come. An accomplishment that could be used as fuel and inspiration for a collection of lower-seeded teams and wild cards who will be the first to take the stage, and the first to show their worth on the first Worlds stage in South Korea since 2018.

The storylines leading into Riot’s prestigious event, the culmination of not only the Summer Splits but the year as a whole for these players, are phenomenal. Pressure is running high, titans have everything to lose, and challengers have it all to play for. All eyes will be on JD Gaming to see if they can close out the “Golden Road” after they won the LPL Spring and Summer Splits and MSI - now all that awaits is Worlds. Will JDG be crowned? Will we have a Korean victor on home soil? Can the West even be relevant this year? All is to play for, and only time will tell.

Silver Stakes - League of Legends World Championship 2023

During the Swiss Stage and knockout rounds of Worlds, Pinnacle will be running the Silver Stakes Esports competition. There will be four rounds, where your bets on pre-game and live matches of Worlds 2023 will generate points towards the Silver Stakes leaderboards. Winning any of these rounds will grant the winner $1,000. There will also be a much larger leaderboard that you can collect points for across the four rounds. The winner of this leaderboard will earn a $25,000 bet on the final match of Worlds!

Play-ins

Following the success of the MSI format and the more competitive nature that it brought to the tournament, Riot Games have followed up by revamping their flagship event. The play-ins this year feature two groups, with an upper and lower bracket. Win two series and you proceed - lose two series, and you are out. Those who qualify through the play-ins bracket will move on to the Swiss Stage.

Worlds Play-In - Group A

As we enter Worlds 2023, just as some things change, some stay the same. PSG Talon, the main representatives of the PCS, play the first game of the event, just like at MSI. Only this time, they find themselves facing off against LLA representatives Movistar R7 in the opening game.

PSG had an unfortunate run at MSI this year. They showed promise that they could potentially make the main event, defeating both LOUD and DetonatioN FocusMe in a swift 2-0 fashion. However, the gap between themselves and the major region teams proved too great. G2 stamped on their dreams in order to ascend to the main group stage, while Golden Guardians eventually sent them home in the lower bracket final. Now, however, if Tsou "Wako" Wei-Yang and Lin "Woody" Yu-En can maintain the same level of performance as a Bot Lane duo that they displayed at MSI, where they ploughed through their wild card counterparts, there’s a very good chance that we could see them in the Swiss Stage of the tournament.

This is the second Worlds appearance for the Latin American representatives Movistar R7. They are celebrating making international competition for the second time this year, as they also made it to MSI where they, like PSG, fell foul to GG. Previously known as Rainbow 7, the organisation has struggled to see international competition, but since the new backing from Movistar, this team is quickly becoming the face of the LLA on the international stage. With imports Cho "Bong" Bo-woong and Jeong "Mireu" Jo-bin coming in this year, the LLA discovered why Korean solo laners are world renowned, but at MSI their group draw was more than a little unlucky. This time around, their opening game isn’t against the likes of Bilibili Gaming (the eventual finalists at MSI), and they have a very good shot of making it out of their group here at Worlds 2023. With them and PSG both being hot contenders, this match should be one of the highlights of the play-ins.

Pinnacle has priced PSG Talon at 1.127* and Movistar R7 at 5.520*

GAM Esports, formerly known as GIGABYTE Marines, are a mainstay at international events as Vietnamese representatives. The only year in the last five that they didn’t win their summer playoffs was all the way back in 2020, despite Covid-19 restrictions preventing them from making the international stages in the interim. However, now they’re back and here to play, with the hope of recovering their reputation for upsets. Two series are all that stands in their way. Đỗ “Levi” Duy Khánh has proven his worth time and time again, making many an appearance on the international stage, upsetting teams in groups such as 2017 G2 at MSI (who ended up coming second for the whole event). To make the main event and join G2 in the Swiss Stage, he must first overcome LOUD.

LOUD, the Brazilian organisation, have been having good runs in Valorant this year, and in terms of domestic success, the same can be said for their League team. Winning the last three splits of CBLOL, they’re slowly becoming the faces of the region, but at MSI they struggled to get off the ground. Taking heavy losses to both G2 and PSG, LOUD have the potential to recreate their elimination game from MSI, as their qualification game for the Swiss Stage of Worlds is a potential rematch with PSG Talon. Can they make it through GAM to do so?

Pinnacle has priced GAM at 2.100* and LOUD at 1.689*

Worlds Play-In - Group B

Dodging both LOUD and PSG (who sent them packing at MSI), DetonatioN FocusMe find themselves against CTBC Flying Oyster in their first match of Worlds 2023. Yuta “Yutapon” Sugiura and Moon “Steal” Geon-yeong have represented the LJL’s DFM at many international tournaments over the last six years, to little or no avail. This experience didn’t help them at MSI, where they didn’t post a single game against their fellow wild card opponents. Their domestic success in the LJL has never translated well to the international stage, and this year has been no different.

CTBC might be playing second fiddle to PSG Talon in the PCS, but the summer grand final went to five games, and despite missing out on MSI this year, their last international performance saw them take a series off a major region representative in the group stage of Worlds 2022. Taking down 100 Thieves put the final nail in the coffin of the North American team, and CTBC are hungrier than ever. With that experience under their belt and their first international stage in a year, you can rest assured that Hsu "Rest" Shih-Chieh and Huang "Gemini" Chu-Xuan are back with a vengeance.

Pinnacle has priced CTBC Flying Oyster at 1.450* and DetonatioN FocusMe at 2.630*

Despite falling to GAM in the final, the VCS’ second seed, Team Whales, are here at Worlds 2023 and intent on doing some damage. However, as their organisation makes their first international appearance after just three splits in their domestic region, they immediately face their biggest challenge yet, as their opening game is against the only major region representative to appear in the play-ins. Can their stars Lê "Glory" Ngọc Vinh and Trần "Artemis" Quốc Hưng rise above expectations, throw a spanner in the works, and present us with our first upset of Worlds 2023? Teams like this make me glad that Riot Games have included a lower bracket. The guarantee of at least two series in which to showcase their talent and gain experience on the international stage could be what it takes to inspire this team to become a new mainstay as representatives of the Vietnamese region.

Will it be Golden Guardians or Team BDS that face them, however? The old NA vs. EU rivalry has been rekindled in the lead up to Worlds 2023, despite not getting to see it at MSI due to an unfortunate group draw. As the fourth seeds of NA and EU respectively, these two teams are set to play a best-of-five (Bo5) series prior to the main play-ins bracket to decide who will face off against Team Whales. History would favour EU in this matchup, however GG have truly shown their mettle this year, especially Eric "Licorice" Ritchie, who seemed quite capable going toe to toe with prolific members of the LPL like Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin. Will he be able to leverage his lane against Adam "Adam" Maanane enough to nullify Juš "Crownie" Marušič? “Crownie” has been the standout player of BDS this year, and appeared for a while to be potentially the strongest AD Carry in the LEC. Did the reverse sweep in spring break his spirit entirely, or is there enough fight in BDS to drag them to the main stage of Worlds 2023?

Pinnacle will price Whales vs. BDS/GG once the second participant has been decided.

*Odds are subject to change