League of Legends Worlds 2023 Quarterfinals Preview

The Swiss stage has concluded at Worlds 2023. Now we go from 16 teams to eight teams left in the quest for the world championship. Let’s meet the teams that qualified for the next stage of Worlds and preview the quarterfinal matches.

Our first quarterfinal match is Gen.G vs Billibilli Gaming. Gen.G is one of two teams to play a minimum of three matches and advance to the knockout round. However, they have yet to face an LPL team during this tournament. Bilibilli went 1-1 against the LCK during the Swiss stage with a win over KT Rolster and a loss to T1. This is the first time Bilibilli has made it to the quarterfinals at Worlds. Gen.G made it to the semi-finals in 2022 and looks to at least match last year’s performance with a win here.

NRG faces Weibo Gaming in the second knockout round match. This is a rematch of the first round of Worlds Swiss stage. Weibo won this match. NRG however rebounded with three wins in a row to move on to the quarterfinals.  After beating NRG, Weibo lost back-to-back games before winning a pair of matches to advance to the quarterfinals.

This is both Weibo and NRG’s first trip to the world’s quarterfinals. NRG also represents the only Western region team to make it to the knockout round. Can they continue their run, or will Weibo make it a guarantee an eastern team will lift the trophy this year?

JD Gaming and KT Rolster will be the third quarterfinal match. JD went 3-0 during the Swiss stage to earn an early spot in the quarterfinals. KT Rolster clinched a spot in the quarterfinals during round five with a win over Dplus KIA.

KT Rolster played the other three LPL teams during the Swiss round and went 1-2. While JD avoided playing any LCK teams during their three matches during the Swiss Stage. KT looks to even up their record against the LPL and eliminate one of the tournament favorites. JD looks to keep cruising as they try to win both worlds and MSI in the same year.

The final quarterfinal matchup is T1 and LNG. It’s a battle of the second seeded team from the LCK and third seed from the LPL. Both teams finished 3-1 during the Swiss stage. T1 defeated Bilibilli to clinch a quarterfinals spot, while LNG took down KT Rolster to advance to this stage.

T1 is looking to make it to the semi-finals as they try and match last year’s run to the finals. Though they are looking for a different result as they finished as runners-up in 2022.  LNG has already improved on last year’s run where they failed to get out of the group stage. Though they want more out of this run than just improvement in the standings and a win over T1 is the first step towards a run in the knockout bracket.

The Worlds quarterfinals take place Nov. 2-5.