The 2023 World Championship for League of Legends is well underway in South Korea. What started with 22 teams from all over the globe is now reduced to eight teams, and all of this happened in less than a month of play.  Despite the short amount of time it took to create this current set of events, there have been quite a few twists and turns. This article will go over those twists but first will review the eight teams remaining in the tournament.

The eight teams remaining that will compete in the best of five quarterfinals are the following:

  1. JDG – the number one seat from the LPL (China) and the favorite to win the World Championship after winning MSI back in May 2023.
  2. GenG – the number one seat from the LCK (Korea) and the runner-up favorite team to win the World Championship.
  3. BLG – the number two seat from the LPL.
  4. T1 – the number two seat from the LCK, the second-place team from the World Championship 2022, the winningest organization in League of Legends history, and the team that has the undisputed greatest player of all time, Faker.
  5. LNG – the number three seat from the LPL.
  6. kt Rolster – the number three seat from the LCK.
  7. Weibo Gaming – the number four seat from the LPL.
  8. NRG – the number one seat from the LCS (North America) and the dark horse/underdog of the remaining eight teams.

These are the top eight teams in the world. The teams that made it this far from the LPL and LCK are not a surprise to anyone because these regions have been winning League of Legends World Championships for the past 12 years. However, the lone North American team remaining is a huge surprise to everyone.

While the schedule of North America’s NRG was not the toughest, they did beat the number one seat from the LEC (Europe), G2, in convincing fashion. Unlike North America, Europe and G2 are expected to make the quarterfinals every year because they have been doing so since 2014. On the other hand, North America has only made it into the quarterfinals a few times in that same time frame. Therefore, NRG making it to the quarterfinals over G2 is by far the biggest twist of the tournament so far.

Quickly naming a few more twists from this World Championship, North America’s Team Liquid did not win a single match in tournament despite having two former World Champions on the team; they were also eliminated from the tournament by the only remaining minor region team, GAM from the VCS (Vietnam), who no one expected to get a win. The final major twist is the rivalry between the North American LCS and the European LEC turned out to favor the LCS for the first time in a several years. While the overall record from the past 13 years is still heavily in the LEC favor, this World Championship goes a long way in potentially proving that North America is not the worst of the four major regions.

If you are interested in tuning in to the quarterfinals, they begin on November 2nd with one best of five series each day until November 5th. Then the semifinals will start on November 11th through the 12th, and lastly, the finals will be on November 19th. NRG verse Weibo gaming will kick off the quarterfinals on November 2nd and if you are anything like me, I will be cheering for the underdog North American team NRG to at least make it to the semifinals.