Indeed, while 2020-21 was surprising, last season was quite poor for Hanwha. Accordingly, being featured in the most competitive League of Legends region isn’t easy. However, they’re trying their best to compete, with changes hitting the Hanwha Life LCK Roster 2023 – read on to learn more below!
Hanwha Life LCK Roster 2023 – Some Helpful Strategy
#HLE#Official#Welcome 안녕하세요. 한화생명e스포츠입니다. 한화생명e스포츠 팀이 LoL팀의 성적 향상 및 미래를 위한 유망주 발굴과 성장을 위해 전력분석유닛을 신설하고, 유닛장으로 최성훈 'Polt'를 선임했습니다. 앞으로 LoL팀의 미래를 함께 그려나갈 'Polt' 유닛장을 함께 환영해주세요. pic.twitter.com/BJc9h0IrxK
Heading into this season, Hanwha has responded to a poor showing by completely sweeping the entire active roster. Accordingly, take a look at the full roster below:
Hwang “Kingen” Seong-hoon – Top
Kim “Clid” Tae-min – Jungle
Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo – Mid
Park “Viper” Do-hyeon – Bot
Kim “Life” Jeong-min – Support
However, although signing a full roster, coaching remained a question mark.
Moreover, they’ve managed to sign the likes of Choi “Polt” Seong-hun as an analyst signed all the way from T1.
Credits: Riot Games
For those unaware, T1 was the top organization from the region last season. Indeed, an analyst from such an impressive organization could do wonders for this team desparate for competition.
Overall, they need to bounce back after last season:
Heading into 2023, Riot Games decided to spice things up for competitive League of Legends. Accordingly, they’ve decided to create a new event to celebrate the start of the competitive season. Read on as we learn how to watch this interesting event we’ve never seen the likes of in this featured article!
Is it like other international events such as the Mid-Seasonal Invitational and Worlds? No, there isn’t that level of interaction between the regions and high-stakes competition. Instead, it’s a replacement for the All-Stars event which took place in prior seasons.
Instead, this event looks to be an event involving a special two-day broadcast where matches will take place across nine regional leagues as listed below:
LJL Season Kickoff 2023 – 11th January – Tokyo
LLA Season Kickoff 2023 – 11th January – Mexico City
VCS Season Kickoff 2023 – 10th January – Ho Chi Minh City
CBLOL Season Kickoff 2023 – 10th January – Sao Paulo
LCK Season Kickoff 2023 – 10th January – Seoul
LEC Season Kickoff 2023 – 11th January – Berlin
LCS Season Kickoff 2023 – 10th January – Los Angeles
In addition: PCS, LPL (details TBD)
This event is an opportunity for the 2023 season to kick off, highlighting the players to watch to give fans an opening look at the Rift. Naturally, this is a much-deserved break for the professional players with some light-hearted competition. For the purpose of this article, we’ll be focusing on three regions to provide some examples:
LEC Season Kickoff 2023 – 11th January – Berlin
Team Legacy: Perkz, odamne, Yoke, Sheo, Hylissang
Team Dynasty: Rekkles, Trymbi, exackick, Evi, 113
Credits: Riot Games
LCK Season Kickoff 2023 – 10th January – Seoul
Team Deft: Morgan, Cuzz, Chovy, Deft, Peter
Team Faker: DuDu, Willer, Faker, Viper, BeryL
CBLOL Season Kickoff 2023 – 11th January – Mexico City
Team Robo – Robo, Ranger, N0sFerus, micaO, RedBert
Team dyNquedo – Tay, Aegis, dyNquedo, DudsTheBoy, Cavalo
Read on as we preview these regions to provide context for the entire region.
Format
Moreover, we’ll be discussing the format of each of the three regions below.
LEC Season Kickoff 2023
Involving two teams comprised of a mixture of veterans and rookies, the LEC looks to crown a Season Kickoff Champions. Through this approach, Riot Games is hoping to showcase new and aspiring talent in the context of proven veterans.
Credits: Riot Games
Within the event, teams will compete in a best-of-three on the Summooner’s Rift Map. But no, this time it’s a little different – using a new kickoff format:
Bans disabled
Drafts cannot be repeated
Lane shuffling after a victory
This should make for some interesting and fun competition.
LCK Season Kickoff 2023
Moving over to Korea, the format looks to be identical. Involving two team captains who have happily picked out their teammates, a single BO3 match will take place offline as the winning team will be able to create an emote for League of Legends.
CBLOL Season Kickoff 2023
Moving over to Brazil, there’ll be the exact same format offline.
With regards to the separate regions, we recommend visiting the official LoL Esports page here to check on the schedule and format of the other regions here.
Schedule for the LoL Season 2023 Kickoff
Credits: Riot Games
With regards to the schedule, we highly recommend visiting the official LoL Esports page to view the schedule of your desired region here.
Watch the LoL Season 2023 Kickoff on esportsguide
You can also watch the event live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
With regards to predictions, considering the nature of the event which is not entirely competitive, all we can predict is an event which kicks off the League of Legends esports season in an awesome way.
For the first time for League of Legends esports, Riot Games wants to start the season in style. Specifically, the LoL season kickoff 2023 schedule was just released. Read on as we preview this exciting event below!
LoL Season Kickoff 2023 – Kicking off This Weekend
Accordingly, the event will involve teams from the following regions:
LCS – North America
LEC – Europe
LCK – Korea
LPL – China
LJL – Japan
CBLOL
LLA
PCS – Pacific
VCS – Vietnam
So, what does it involve? Depending on the region, teams will be drafted to compete internationally. The competition will involve best-of-3 formats on Summoner’s Rift, apart for the LPL.
Desk hosts and commentators can form quite a fanbase within esports. Accordingly, as the voice of the action, their role is essential to every broadcast. Bearing this in mind, LCS Riot Games 2023 seems to have made an interesting decision as they’ve cut a popular desk host from the lineup – read on to learn how the community responded!
LCS Riot Games 2023 – The Community Responds
For ten years, James “Dash” Patterson has graced the LCS broadcast as a desk host. However, despite this strong relationship with the community, yesterday the following was revealed in a heart-felt Tweet:
Now, the problem here is the reason behind the decision. Accordingly, there didn’t seem to be any reason as Riot Games simply dropped the personality without any warning. Moreover, the former desk host said the following on Twitch:
The saddening part in all of it is that I wasn’t spoken to prior to the news.
After spending a decade, you know, giving a 100 percent of myself to something, that I didn’t feel that kind of respect given back towards me in that moment of just having a conversation about ‘hey, we want to make changes, and can we arrive at a decision, that, you know, with you.
Credits: James Dash
Naturally, the schedule and broadcast is changing for 2023. However, decisions such as this one cause community backlash which Riot Games would rather avoid.
Indeed, high expectations and failing to reach those expectations is often reason enough for a team to make change. Accordingly, following a bittersweet second place finish last season, the community inquired about the T1 LCK Roster 2023. However, it seems they’ll be staying exactly the same heading into this year!
For those unaware, the T1 LCK team had a phenomenal season last year. Apart from a 24-win streak and dominating the Korean region, they performed very well internationally.
Sadly, they placed 2nd at both MSI and Worlds with the following roster:
Choi “Zeus” Woo-je – Top Laner
Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun – Jungler
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeokk – Mid Laner
Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong – Bot Laner
Ryu “Keria” Min-seok – Support
Sadly, with all of the expectations and achievements, they failed to win the big one. Deciding to stick together, in our opinion, is definitely the right move. This is elaborated further by Joe March, CEO of T1 in an interview with Patty Yu:
Credits: Riot Games
We were 30 minutes away from winning a world championship, and we felt it was important to keep the roster together – this is a Worlds-winning roster, and hopefully, we will be able to show it in 2023
Credits: Joe March – CEO T1
Let’s see if they can replicate another incredible season:
Earlier this month, we discussed some changes over at Cloud9 regarding content creation. However, moving over to the main roster, there haven’t been any changes until now. Accordingly, it seems the Cloud9 LCS roster 2023 decided to make a coaching change – read on to learn more about it!
Cloud9 LCS Roster 2023 – Max Waldo Leaves
Today Max departs from Cloud9 and our League of Legends team to pursue content creation
For those unaware, coaching plays quite a big part in competitive League of Legends.
Specifically, there are head coaches, assistant coaches, positional coaches and more. In the case of Cloud9, it seems that they’ve parted ways with their positional coach.
Moreover, since signing in November, Maxwell “Max Waldo” Alexander Waldo is already parting ways with the team – a very strange move. Coming and leaving all within the off-season, this is a weird move, but it seems he’ll be moving over to content creation.
Regardless, they have the likes of Marcin “Selfie” Wolski to fill in the position as positional coach for the following active roster:
Credits: Riot Games
Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami – Top
Robert “Blaber” Huang – Jungle
Dimitri “Diplex” Ponomarev – Mid
Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol – Bot
Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen – Support
For those unaware, the main weakness of North America compared to other regions is a weaker sense of strategy. Despite winning the LCS Summer 2022 event, placing 15-16th at Worlds was definitely a wake up call.
We’re not sure whether any changes will take place with the active roster – we’ll keep you up to date.
Indeed, there’s no written rules in esports restricting female competitors in the most competitive leagues in the world such as the LCK. Accordingly, a monumental signing has taken place in the LCK CL 2023 – the very first female professional in the scene.
LCK CL 2023 – A Historic Move
Credits: Riot Games
Usually, in the context of esports, male and female competitors have been separated to make things easier for everybody. Anyways, without diving into the details, there’s never been a female competitor in League of Legends competing alongside males.
Indeed, it’s happening through the LCK CL 2023. For those unaware, this is the Challengers or second-tier competition in South Korea.
Specifically, Liiv SANDBOX has signed the likes of Jeon “DangMoo” Su-jin:
𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞, 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐌𝐨𝐨!
'DangMoo' 전수진 선수가 리브 샌드박스 유스팀에 합류하게 되었습니다. 오랫동안 꿈꿔왔던 꿈에 도전하는 당무 선수에게 많은 응원과 관심 부탁드리겠습니다.
DangMoo joins #LSB CL to take on a new challenge as a pro player. Please give her a warm welcome! pic.twitter.com/AGZy5Egf7Y
Although new to professional competing, she’s a popular content creator in the region who’ll be fighting to keep her spot in this active roster.
We’ll reiterate again – this is historic in the sense that this has never happened before.
Overall, we’ll be curious to see how they compete in the LCK CL 2023 Spring event in the coming months. All eyes will be on this individual to see if she can perform should she start in the roster.
As is tradition at esportsguide, we love working on an Esports Tier List every now and then. Indeed, following the conclusion of some of the largest esports events ever, now is the best time ever. Accordingly, feel free to read on for an updated list for Esports Tier List 2022 Q4!
Indeed, as always, we’ll fill you in on the same criteria we’ve always used to dictate our tier lists:
Event Proportions – Size of prize pools, number of participants, third and first party organizers, environment and arena capacities
Event frequency – is the year bursting with competition or solely reliant on infrequent first-party organizers
Competitiveness – the level of competition in an esports scene is related to its livelihood
State of the community – health of the lower tier sectors and general condition of the esport as a dynamic entity
Credits: Garena
Accordingly, with that taken care of, always remember that these lists are subject to our opinion too. Otherwise, we’ll be listing the top viewership from the time period, although it’s not the only factor considered. We’re not looking at growth – just where they stand.
Tier 1 – Welcoming VALORANT and Free Fire – Esports Tier List 2022
LoL – 2022 World Championship – Peak Viewers 5,147,701
CS:GO – PGL Major Antwerp 2022 – Peak Viewers 2,113,610
Dota 2 – The International 2022 – Peak Viewers 1,751,086
VALORANT – VALORANT Champions 2022 – Peak Viewers 1,505,804
Free Fire – Free Fire World Series 2022 Sentosa – Peak Viewers 1,477,545
So, let’s talk about the changes involved here. Firstly, since our last Esports Tier List, we’ve decided to promote VALORANT to Tier 1 after an incredible second season, breaking the million peak viewer mark.
In addition, we’ve decided to demote PUBG Mobile from Tier 1 to Tier 2 due to a quieter year, failing to reach the same level of viewership. In contrast, Free Fire managed to grow in the past year and have earned a spot as the top Mobile Esport in the world.
Otherwise, LoL and CS:GO retain their spots as the two very best esports in the world, each having incredible years. Although still worthy of Tier 1, Dota had a rough year and will look to improve next year.
Tier 2 – Multiple Promotions and Demotions
PUBG Mobile – 31st Southeast Asian Games PUBG Mobile – Peak Viewers 903,011
Rocket League – RLCS 21-22 World Championship – Peak Viewers 368,721
Overwatch League – OWL 2022 Playoffs – Peak Viewers 397,868
CoD – CDL 2022 Playoffs – Peak Viewers 275,244
Credits: Psyonix
While Tier 1 has remained somewhat the same, Tier 2 has seen multiple changes since last year.
Perhaps the most impressive climber is the likes of Rocket League – after an impressive year with constant improvement in viewership, the esport is kicking up very well. They’re climb to Tier 2 from Tier 3 is joined by AoG which has remained consistent over the past two years.
Also, Overwatch has made the jump thanks to a much needed improvement of viewership from last year. In fact, it was doubled this year thanks to the excitement behind Overwatch 2.
As we explained prior, for now we’ve had to demote PUBG Mobile to Tier 2 as they’ve failed to be consistent this past year. Let’s see if things improve next year.
Tier 3 – Halo Infinite Making a Mark
Halo World Championship 2022 – Peak Viewers 143,585
FIFA – FIFA eWorld Cup 2022 – Peak Viewers 149,465
PUBG – PUBG Nations Cup – Peak Viewers 239,112
Rainbow Six Siege – Six Invitational 2022 – Peak Viewers 262,714
Credits: Blizzard
Here in Tier 3, the likes of Halo and FIFA are newcomers. With Halo restarting esports operations this year, it joins an improving FIFA scene which returned with offline events this year.
Meanwhile, we’ve decided to demote PUBG and Rainbow Six Siege as they both seem to be lacking growth. Bearing this in mind, both esports are making big changes for 2023 in search of success.
Tier 4 – Wild Rift Experiment Failing?
Credits: Blizzard
StarCraft II – IEM Katowice 2022 – Peak Viewers 50,635
Fortnite – Fortnite Champions Series 2022 Invitational – Peak Viewers 381,915
Hearthstone – Hearthstone World Championship – Peak Viewers 21,786
Despite being a fairly successful esports organization, Vitality hasn’t found much success in League of Legends. Accordingly, heading into the next season, the Vitality LEC Roster 2023 needs to perform. Bearing this in mind, let’s take a look at the announced team below!
Yes, for multiple seasons now, Team Vitality have failed to reach the podium at any point in time since 2018. Also, having not qualified for Worlds since 2018, there’s a lot of room for improvement for this team.
Bearing this in mind, a complete overhaul is incoming. Specifically, four new players have been signed to build around the veteran Luka “Perkz” Perkovic – have a look:
Kyeong “Photon” Gyu-tae – Top – NEW
Zhou “Bo” Yangbo – Jungle – NEW
Luka “Perkz” Perkovic – Mid
Matus “Neon” Jakubcik – Bot – NEW
Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser – Support – NEW
Credits: Riot Games
There are some great talents here, such as Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser, who was part of the MAD Lions run last year.
As we’ll reiterate, this team needs to improve and perhaps, even make it to an international event – here’s the standard they want to beat:
Naturally, every esport is trying to be the best version of itself. Indeed, publishers and event organizers work with the community and competitors to cultivate the best environment possible. Accordingly, in this featured article we’ll be taking a look at the Top 5 Esports Scenes 2022!
With regards to our definition of ‘best’, we’ll be using our observations from the past year together with statistics. Indeed, ‘best’ does not translate to objective performance – growth in the esport is given priority! Also, all viewership statistics are publically available at Esports Charts.
#5 – Rocket League
Credits: Psyonix
Accordingly, let’s kick things off with a surprise. Yes, Rocket League esports comes in at number 5 this year. Heading into 2022, the esport was experimenting with a brand new format, hoping to find success.
Indeed, success was found. Accordingly, return to physical venues together with a fantastic level of competition drove the scene upwards. Specifically, we’d like to point out that an increased viewership was observed for every subsequent event this year!
Moreover, all Majors this year saw better viewership than prior years, with the World Championship hitting 350,000 peak viewers. Indeed, take a look for yourself below!
RLCS 2021-22 Fall Split Major – $300,000
Peak Viewers – 280,226
Average Viewers – 150,251
RLCS 2021-22 World Championship – $2,085,000
Peak Viewers – 368,721
Average Viewers – 154,302
While there’s still some work to be done, the growth scene in 2022 deserves credit.
#4 – Dota 2 – Top 5 Esports Scenes 2022
Credits: Valve
Moving on, we have a different story – a disappointing one.
Painting as one of the top esports, Dota 2 esports did not reach expectations this year. Failing to return in style after the global situation, viewership struggled a little too with regards to Valve’s Dota Pro Circuit.
In addition, controversy around some DPC decisions doesn’t help.
Regardless of the lacking viewership, the main flop came in the form of The International 2022. Failing to reach half the prize pool of the prior year, and only 70% of the viewership, we can’t help but wonder.
Again, we need to point out that objectively, it was still a good year for Dota 2 esports. However, when compared to the past, this is a potential low-point to bounce back from.
PGL Arlington Major 2022
Peak Viewership – 707,907
Average Viewership – 305,286
The International 2022 – $18,930,775
Peak Viewership – 1,751,086
Average Viewership – 563,713
#3 – VALORANT
Credits: Riot Games
Back to the idea of growth, we have Riot Games’ VALORANT. Indeed, following an impressive opening year, it was time to dial things up a notch for 2022.
Featuring more offline events and fiercer international competition, the competitive and casual community seemed to love VALORANT this year.
In the midst of an evolving competitive scene, the title continues to mature and find its own identity. Under the guise of the experience of Riot Games, an impressive production quality for such a young esport is putting the event on track.
Perhaps, the only hiccup this year was slight inconsistency with viewership, as 2021 events still seemed to edge out some of the 2022 events.
Anyways, VALORANT Champions, the crown jewel of the year, was massively succesful to set a new record for the esport:
VCT 2022: Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen
Peak Viewership – 783,985
Average Viewership – 317,604
VALORANT Champions 2022
Peak Viewership – 1,505,804
Average Viewership – 525,817
#2 – CounterStrike: Global Offensive – Top 5 Esports Scenes 2022
Credits: ESL
Moving on, the mention of CS:GO at the top of our list is no surprise.
In comparison to other scenes, 2022 saw a ridiculous amount of competition for CS:GO – the very best schedule in all of esports.
Between multiple Majors, multiple competitive storylines and epic moments, the year was simply epic and reminded everyone about CS:GO’s place in esports.
As you can imagine, it must be difficult to innovate with the competitive title out for so long. However, this year also saw some healthy changes such as Major Qualification adjustments and format changes. There’s honestly not much more to say – CS:GO could have placed first if not for one metric – viewership.
PGL Major Antwerp 2022 – $1,000,000
Peak Viewership – 2,113,610
Average Viewership – 586,218
IEM Rio Major 2022 – $1,250,000
Peak Viewership – 1,428,993
Average Viewership – 548,100
#1 – League of Legends
Credits: Riot Games
Yes, viewership is the main reason why League of Legends is our number one esport from 2022 – a shocking 5,000,000 viewers at World Championship!
However, there’s more to it than that. Thanks to multiple franchised regional leagues, an improvement in regional competition has resulted in international improvements too.
Not changing too much for this year, Riot Games simply finetuned the circuit and let the magic happen naturally. That’s the beauty of this past year for LoL – Riot Games conjure up the best environment possible for competitors, casuals and viewers to enjoy the entire experience.
Take a look at the numbers yourself:
2022 Mid-Season Invitational
Peak Viewership – 2,194,104
Average Viewership – 588,187
2022 World Championship
Peak Viewership – 5,147,701
Average Viewership – 987,437
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below! We can’t wait for 2023!
