With the Play-Ins wrapped up, the Bracket Stage Draw has been completed, with many exciting series upcoming.
The MSI 2023 Play-Ins so far have been fairly exciting. League of Legends esports has gotten to a relatively good start. We saw some surprising picks like Nautilus in the mid-lane, Poppy becoming a priority, and the constant roaming from teams. Although many games have been one-sided, the rise of Golden Guardians was fun to watch.
Thus, G2, Bilibili Gaming, and Golden Guardians qualify for the Bracket Stage as we await the start of the matches in 2 days. The big guns are about to hit the stage, and the teams should be in full swing. It was clear that some of the teams were at a higher level than the rest, and we will have to see whether either of these three teams can make some noise in the Bracket Stage.
Thus, let’s talk about the Brackets Stage, starting with the teams in the competition and the draw. Here is all of that and more.
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Bracket Stage Teams
Eight teams will be in this stage as they compete in a double-elimination bracket. All the teams were assigned to three different tiers as follows.
Tier 1
There are two Tier 1 teams at MSI 2023.
- GEN.G (LCK 1st Seed)
- JD Gaming (LPL 1st Seed)
Tier 2
The LEC and LCS 1st seeds are in Tier 2.
- MAD Lions (LEC 1st Seed)
- Cloud9 (LCS 1st Seed)
Tier 3
Lastly, we have T1 auto-qualifying to the Bracket Stage while BLG, G2, and GG qualified through the Play-Ins.
- T1 (LCK 2nd Seed)
- Bilibili Gaming (Winner of Group A)
- G2 Esports (Winner of Group B)
- Golden Guardians (Winners of the Last Chance Qualifier)
With these eight teams, they were drawn into a double-elimination bracket.
Bracket Stage Draw
The teams were drawn in this specific order.
- One Tier 1 and Tier 2 team goes on one side of the bracket.
- Teams from the same region cannot play each other in Round 1
- Each Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams face a Tier 3 team.
With those rules in place, here was the draw as follows.
- Gen.G vs G2 Esports
- MAD Lions vs T1
- Cloud9 vs Bilibili Gaming
- JD Gaming vs Golden Guardians
While the first round of matchup may look ok in some sense, this does not look good as you go later into the stage. We could very well see four regional matchups in Round 1 of the Lower Bracket and Round 2 of the Upper Bracket. That isn’t good for MSI 2023 as a whole, as everyone has already seen these matchups weeks ago.
Regardless, this is what was drawn and what fans have to expect in MSI 2023 in the near future.
Schedule
The Bracket Stage games will start on May 9, 2023, and continue until May 21, 2023. All games will be best of fives.
