The WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1 playoffs are here! Find out what happened in the group stages and which teams are the favorites to win this prestigious Wild Rift tournament.
The WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1 is a regional league organized by Riot Games and features the best teams from all across Asia.
You can live stream and bet on all games from the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1 at GGBET Philippines. This tournament features 20 teams in total who are all vying for the $1 million prize pool.
The majority of the teams hail from China, but there are also some strong contenders from the Philippines.
What is the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1 Tournament Structure?
The 20 teams are divided into two groups, a China conference featuring 12 teams from China and an APAC conference featuring 8 teams from across Asia.
How it works is that each team plays everyone in their own conference and then half of the teams from the other conference.
All matches are best of 3, and the top 4 teams from each conference progress to the semi-finals while the teams who came 5th to 8th from the China conference progress to the lower bracket round 1. All playoff matches are best of 7.
The event is being held both offline and online and has attracted some massive sponsors, including OnePlus, PUMA, and KIA.
There is over $1 million up for grabs, and the winner will lock up over $200,000. This is an incredibly exclusive event with the top professional Wild Rift teams from all over Asia vying for victory.
It will be interesting to see how the smaller, less developed South East Asian teams fare against the major Chinese esports organizations like JD Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix.
Who is Competing At the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1?
20 teams from all over Asia are currently battling it out in the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1. Here is a full list of the competing teams:
- KeepBest Gaming
- CERBERUS Esports
- EDward Gaming
- JD Gaming
- FENNEL
- Team Weibo
- Nigma Galaxy
- ThunderTalk Gaming
- Nova Esports
- Trace Esports
- FunPlus Phoenix
- WuHu Gaming
- Oh My God
- J Team
- Rare Atom
- KT Rolster
- Buriram United Esports
- NAOS Esports
- Team Flash
- INVATE Esports
There are 12 teams from China, including familiar faces like EDward Gaming, JD Gaming, Team Weibo, and FunPlus Phoenix. There are 8 teams from the rest of Asia, including a number of South Korean and Filipino squads.
The Chinese teams were definitely the favorites going into the tournament, but you can never count out up-and-coming squads like Nigma Galaxy, Buriram United Esports, and NAOS Esports.
What Happened in the Group Stage?
Unsurprisingly the group stage at the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1 has been dominated by Chinese teams. KeepBest Gaming has been, by far, the best team in the whole tournament. They managed to secure a super impressive record of 14-1.
The only game they lost was against Nova Esports, who are also having a great tournament and achieved a 12-3 record which was good enough for 3rd place in the China Conference.
The other top-performing teams from the China Conference were J Team, who took second with a 13-2 record, and JD Gaming, who scraped into the top 4 with a 10-5 record.
We expected more from JD Gaming, but they still have a chance to redeem themselves in the playoffs.
Over in the Asia Conference, most teams struggled. Of the 8 teams, only two managed to secure a winning record which was not surprising, seeing as they don’t have the budget or the experience to compete against the major Chinese esports teams.
KT Roster were the top-performing Asia Conference squad and secured a 9-4 record which included wins over EDward Gaming and Rare Atom. In total, the Asia Conference teams only won 5 games against the China Conference teams.
In second place was Buriram United Esports, with a respectable 7-6 record. Squeezing into the playoffs with unimpressive 5-8 records were Nigma Galaxy and NAOS Esports. Asia Conference teams face an uphill battle in the playoffs, but where there is a will, there’s a way.
The Playoffs Are Going Down Right Now!
The playoffs are just about to kick off, and we couldn’t be more excited. In the first lower bracket round 1 match JD Gaming is taking on Trace Esports. In the second match, Team Weibo is matched up against ThunderTalk.
In the China Conference upper bracket semi-finals, KeepBest Gaming is battling against Nova Esports, the only team to beat them during the group stage. In the second match, J Team is up against EDward Gaming. In the Asia Conference, KT Rolster will play NAOS Esports in the first upper-bracket semi-final.
Then in the second semi-final, Buriram United will take on Nigma Galaxy, which should be an exciting back-and-forth affair.
Which Team is Going to Win the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1?
The red-hot favorite to win the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1 is KeepBest Gaming. They won the China conference with a 14-1 record after dropping just one close match against Nova Esports in a rare poor performance.
They have tons of big match experience and already have over $200,000 in lifetime tournament winnings, including a massive win at the WRL 2022 Season 2.
KeepBest Gaming are playing exceptionally well, and the other teams have been unable to develop a strategy to counter them. If DaT and KG keep playing well, then we expect them to sail through the playoffs and take home the title and the massive cash prize.
Unfortunately, we don’t see any Asia Conference team getting the win. The only team who has a slimmer of hope is KT Rolster, but they weren’t able to beat any top China Conference teams during the group stage, and we don’t expect them to beat them in the playoffs.
In fact, both J Team and KeepBest Gaming already crushed KT Rolster 2-0 during the group stage. Comment below who you think is going to win the WRL Asia 2023 – Season 1!
