After years of debate, the LCS will attempt to finally put an end to the question of who has the superior League of Legends skill: zoomers or boomers.
Young and veteran League talent will stand on opposite sides of Summoner’s Rift in the LCS portion of the Season 2023 Kickoff, set to begin tomorrow at 1pm CT. All 10 LCS teams will be represented in this tournament, though their players will be combined into two teams—many of them never having played alongside one another before—in a unique format to determine if the younger generation truly is the future or if the experience of the older generation will reign supreme.
Team Zoomer consists of Immortals top laner Revenge, FlyQuest jungler Spica, Evil Geniuses mid laner Jojopyun, Cloud9 ADC Berserker, and 100 Thieves support Busio. They’ll be up against Team Boomer, made up of TSM top laner Solo, CLG jungler Contractz, Dignitas mid laner Jensen, Golden Guardians ADC Stixxay, and Team Liquid support CoreJJ. The winning team will be given the opportunity to make an in-game emote.
This will be the first time that fans will be able to see these players compete on the Rift in 2023. This new event is the replacement for the LCS Lock-In tournament, which served as a season introduction for the past two years. The 2023 Spring Split is set to begin on Jan. 26, where all of the players competing in this tournament, as well as those who aren’t, will be participating.
The Season 2023 Kickoff will follow the “fearless” format, where there will be a best-of-three with no bans for either side. Once a champion is chosen, it cannot be picked by any player in the subsequent games, allowing for more champion diversity and unique strategies than fans may witness throughout the regular season.
Notably, the LCS portion of this event occurs at nearly the same start time that the regular season is set to begin, a change that has remained one of the most controversial factors about the upcoming North American season since its announcement at the end of last year. Fans have voiced immense dissatisfaction at the time change, as well as the date change to Thursdays and Fridays, though the LCS has yet to acknowledge growing concerns regarding potential viewership loss.
It was also recently revealed that long-time host James “Dash” Patterson won’t be returning to the broadcast full-time, further fueling the worries of fans. Merely two weeks from the start of the 2023 LCS Spring Split on Jan. 26, nearly no information is available on what the broadcast will look like this year.
In the meantime, fans can look forward to a clash of LCS newbies and greats during the Season 2023 Kickoff, beginning at 1pm CT on Jan. 10.
