According to reports, qualifications would be held this year in preparation for the event set for return in 2023. The dialogue between the LCL tournament organizer administrators was translated by LCL expert Glaeweth and shared on Twitter.

“One of the administrators mentioned that preparations are underway for the league to return in 2023, with qualifications to be held later this year,” the tweet read.

“However, Worlds “is no longer there” per the screenshot. The possibilities are not so endless:
? the league gets redone, akin to the #LCO,
? there could be a merger with the TCL,
? the league eventually gets turned into an ERL and thus feeds into the #EUMasters ecosystem.”

According to the report, GIG.ME responded to the initial post and promised to keep in touch and inform the public of the details as soon as everything was in place.

Instead of the previous format, the new league changes will make use of a qualification process. The new format will reportedly take away slots from the organizers. The LCL’s 2023 return may feature a league reset, much like Oceania’s LCO, which ESL Australia oversees instead of Riot Games.

The restart could also include a merger with TCL in Turkey or the possible inclusion of the Russian LCL into a regional league in Europe via the EU Masters ecosystem.

The Russian LCL put a halt on operations early this year after the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, began the invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russian esports teams have suffered as a result and, on numerous occasions, were given severe sanctions as a result of the conflict.

The teams were noticeably absent from a number of competitions all year round, and during the LCL, the Russian teams were sidelined. They were disallowed from participating in the Mid-Season Invitational as well as the World Championship. The last time Russia competed on an international stage was in the 2021 World Championship via Unicorns of Love.

Russia’s LCL return to action is yet to be officially announced. The posted conversation is all fans have to work with at the moment because Riot Games are yet to make an official comment or anything concerning the situation.

?More esports news

Afreeca Freecs enter this match off a 2-0 sweep of Fredit BRION in what was a surprisingly close and a sloppy affair.

Regardless, AF proved that they can come out of the chaos with gigantic gold leads, which speaks a lot about their quality as a team that will do fine against bottom of the table squads, but will likely struggle against the top dogs.

Liiv SANDBOX were not very successful last week, when they lost to Nongshim RedForce (1-2) and KT Rolster (0-2). If there is something we can take from SANDBOX’s games is that they have a lot of promise, but they’re very messy in execution, which suggests they should do fine later in the season, but for now they’re a bit hit-or-miss.

Despite AF’s shaky display against the league’s worst team, they are still the better side here. We expected them to be priced closer to $1.60 (with the top esports betting sites), which makes this a no-brainer pick for us.

Nongshin RedForce lost their most recent league fixture against DWG KIA which was expected, however we have to note that RedForce’s mid laner Park “Bay” Jun-byeong continues to disappoint in his debut as a pro. Based on his performance so far, it seems like he won’t be able to keep up with other mid laners in the league including DRX’s Song “SOLKA” Su-hyeong.

DRX are arguably one of the weakest teams in this League of Legends league, but they perform much better than expected. DRX’s biggest problem is their inability to gain leads on their own, however, they are fairly efficient in closing out games when given the opportunity.

Taking advantage of RedForce’s weaknesses (mid) will be crucial for DRX’s success and we are confident jungler Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon is aware of that. This seems more like an underdog or nothing type of match and at these odds and so early into the season, it’s hard not to take shot on DRX.