The 2023 LCS season was the 11th season of the League Championship Series (LCS), a North American professional esports league for the video game League of Legends. The season was divided into two splits: Spring and Summer. The Spring Split began on January 26, 2023, and culminated with the Spring Split Finals on April 9, 2023. The Summer Split began on June 14, 2023, and culminated with the LCS Championship Final on August 20, 2023.
Just before the original planned start of the Summer Split, most LCS franchises ended their Challenger programs, leaving many pro players without teams. In response, the LCS Players Association threatened a walkout. Riot Games, the governing body of LCS, responded by delaying the Summer Split by two weeks for negotiations. They also warned that if no agreement was reached in that time, the entire LCS season would be canceled, and North American teams would miss Worlds 2023. Ultimately, negotiations continued, and the Summer Split started two weeks late.
The 2023 season also saw NRG Esports acquire Counter Logic Gaming's franchise slot.
Spring
The Spring Split regular season ran from January 26 to March 17, 2023. The regular season followed a standard double round-robin format, where each team faced every other team twice, once in each half of the split. Regular season matches were best-of-one, allowing the use of any champion, except in cases of game-breaking bugs. If a new champion was introduced during the season, it was banned from use by any team for two weeks. Any ties in record were broken by head-to-head records, and any remaining ties were broken by tiebreaker matches.
The playoffs ran from March 23 to April 9, 2023, and followed a double-elimination tournament format. The top six teams with the highest regular season records secured spots in the Spring Playoffs, with the top four starting in the upper bracket and the following two in the lower bracket. All matches were played as a best-of-five series. The Finals were played at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the top two teams from the playoffs qualified for the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational.
Regular season
Playoffs
Bracket
Final standings
Awards
1st Team All-Pro: Fudge, Cloud9 Blaber, Cloud9 Gori, Golden Guardians Berserker, Cloud9 Vulcan, Evil Geniuses
2nd Team All-Pro: Impact, FlyQuest Spica, FlyQuest EMENES, Cloud9 Prince, FlyQuest Zven, Cloud9
3rd Team All-Pro: Ssumday, Evil Geniuses Inspired, Evil Geniuses VicLa, FlyQuest Doublelift, 100 Thieves huhi, Golden Guardians
Most Valuable Player: Berserker, Cloud9
Coaching Staff of the Split: Cloud9
Summer
The Summer Split regular season ran from June 14 to July 21, 2023. The regular season followed the same format as the Spring Split.
The playoffs ran from July 27 to August 20, 2023, and followed a double-elimination tournament format. The top eight teams with the highest regular season records secured spots in the playoofs, with the top two starting in the upper bracket semifinals, the following four starting in the upper bracket quarterfinals, and the remaining two starting in the lower bracket. The LCS Championship Finals were played at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The top three teams from the playoffs qualified for the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, while the fourth placed team moved on to the Worlds Qualifying Series.
Regular season
LCS Championship playoffs
Bracket
Final standings
Awards
1st Team All-Pro: Licorice, Golden Guardians Blaber, Cloud9 jojopyun, Evil Geniuses Berserker, Cloud9 huhi, Evil Geniuses
2nd Team All-Pro: Summit, Team Liquid River, Golden Guardians Gori, Golden Guardians Stixxay, Golden Guardians Zven, Cloud9
3rd Team All-Pro: Fudge, Cloud9 Pyosik, Team Liquid EMENES, Cloud9 UNF0RGIVEN, Evil Geniuses CoreJJ, Team Liquid