LCS analyst Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman has proposed a brand-new Worlds format that’ll remove the need for the Play-Ins stage entirely.
The Worlds 2022 Group Stage is just about to kick off following the conclusion of Play-Ins, and once again the League of Legends community is on the topic of whether or not we need to see future changes to the tournament format.
Over the years, we’ve seen countless suggestions on how Riot can make Worlds an overall more enjoyable experience for everybody.
LCS analyst MarkZ has now come forward with his ideas, proposing that Riot removes Play-Ins from the tournament format altogether, which he claims would be better for viewership.
Markz suggests new Worlds format with no Play-Ins
According to MarkZ, the Play-In stage was to grab the best of the “emerging” regions and stick them in Worlds. But, now they need to upset a major region to even make it to the Group Stage.
Instead, the LCS analyst has proposed that Riot switch up the format by removing the play-in stage, and having a massive group stage consisting of all 24 teams.
“I’ve got a really f**king crazy idea. What if we just started Worlds? Just delete Play-Ins, and start Worlds. Right now, we spend six days, with eight-game days and double best-of-fives to slam through Play-Ins into another Group Stage that’s another eight days of broadcast.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“Just f**king put four groups of six because there’s twelve and twelve right? So you just do Play-In teams, put them into four groups of six and play a single round-robin best-of-one like we just did!”
(Timestamp at 32:26)
MarkZ proposed that after the revamped Group Stage, a Knockout Stage could for example have the top three teams from each group placed into a double-elimination style bracket or something of the sort. This would mean the top two teams from each group are placed in the upper bracket, with the four third-place teams being put into the lower bracket.
He added that by playing six games a day, the new format would only last around 10 days instead of the usual 14 during the traditional Play-Ins and Group Stage.
“Why do we devote so much tournament time to like what is objectively not the most entertaining part? But we still have major region and viewership concerns.”
It seems like it would be a pretty interesting format to see all Worlds participants clashing at once instead of the current drawn-out format.
