Worlds Swiss Stage

The first stage of the League of Legends World Championship main event, a Swiss-format round in which 16 teams battle for quarterfinal berths under a 3-wins-to-advance, 3-losses-eliminated structure

Worlds Swiss Stage

Overview

The Worlds Swiss Stage (Swiss Stage) is the first stage of the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds) main event, a Swiss-format tournament in which 16 teams compete across five rounds. The first team to reach three wins advances to the quarterfinal knockout stage, while a team that records three losses is eliminated immediately. It was introduced starting with the 2023 tournament, replacing the previous group stage of four groups of four teams, and was designed to reduce the problems of competitive strength being distorted by the luck of the group draw and to cut down on meaningless matches.

Key Details

Background of Introduction

From 2014 to 2022, the Worlds main event used a group stage format with four groups of four teams. However, a so-called "group of death," in which strong teams were clustered into a single group, occurred every year, and conversely, when the gap in strength within a group was large, "dead rubber" matches in the second week became effectively meaningless. Criticism was also raised that the disparity in the quarterfinal bracket between first-place and second-place group finishers was too great, making the reward for group stage performance unclear. To resolve these structural problems, Riot Games announced a reform plan for the 2023 Worlds main event, and its core was the introduction of the Swiss Stage.

Format

Number of participants: 16 teams in the main event (including teams that advanced through the play-in stage).
Round structure: Five rounds in total. Rounds 1–2 are played as single games (Bo1), and Rounds 3–5 are played as best-of-three (Bo3) to reduce the variables in matches where advancement or elimination is at stake.
Matchmaking: Before each round begins, matchups are drawn among teams with identical records (e.g., 2-0, 1-1, 0-2). As a rule, teams do not face opponents they have already played.
Advancement and elimination: Reaching three wins means advancing to the quarterfinals, while accumulating three losses means elimination. The final-round match of the 2-2 group is contested for a quarterfinal ticket.
Quarterfinal seeding: Teams that advance at 3-0 are assigned favorable matchups, and a rule is applied during the knockout stage draw to minimize collisions between teams from the same Swiss group.

Draw and Regional Seeding

Round 1 matchups are determined by pool allocation based on regional league seeds (LCK, LPL, LEC, LCS, PCS, VCS, CBLOL, LJL, etc.), so that inter-regional matchups are set up from the opening match. From Round 2 onward, the draw is purely random, with opponents determined at random within the same record group. Because of this, cases arise in which a particular team receives a relatively easy draw or, conversely, faces only strong teams in succession, and there is an assessment that "draw luck" influences results.

Notable Cases and Records

In the first Swiss Stage in 2023, an LCK team was eliminated at 1-3, an upset that showed a tension different from that of the group stage. At the 2024 tournament, all LEC teams were eliminated in the Swiss Stage, giving rise to talk of a crisis for the European league, while conversely LPL and LCK teams advanced stably to the quarterfinals, revealing the gap in strength between regions. It is also repeatedly pointed out that teams advancing at 3-0 enjoy a long rest period, whereas 2-2 group teams play all the way through Round 5, increasing the physical burden.

Latest Trends

The 2024 Worlds Swiss Stage was held in Berlin, Germany, and the 2025 Worlds was hosted in China under a three-city system, with the play-in and Swiss Stage in Beijing, the quarterfinals and semifinals in Shanghai, and the final in Chengdu. In the 2025 season, with fearless draft introduced across international competitions, the ban-pick strategic landscape of the Swiss Stage changed significantly, and the assessment spread that the depth of a champion pool directly translates into competitive strength. In addition, as viewership for the Round 5 2-2 matchups has risen to a level comparable to the final, the Swiss Stage has established itself as core content driving the tournament's early buzz. Discussions on format improvement continue as well, with strengthening the transparency of the draw method, reducing the proportion of Bo1, and adjusting regional seed allocation being steadily mentioned.