EMEA Masters – League of Legends Skill Beyond Amateurs

The EU Masters tournament is an ongoing tournament series in League of Legends hosted by Riot games. Launching in Spring 2018, there are two iterations per year – a Spring and Summer event. Unlike other tournaments, EU Masters doesn’t consist entirely of pro teams – instead, semi-pro and amateur players compete.

With the various ERLs having finished their summer splits, the best teams will be facing each other in the EMEA Masters Summer 2023. The two finalists will face off at the Sud de France arena in Montpellier, the day before the final matches of the LEC Season Finals.

Watch EMEA Masters 2023 Live:

The entire EMEA Masters Summer will be broadcasted on various different channels in multiple languages:

For the Play-Ins, the English streams will be provided by EUniverse and ESLOL, but the matches will be also broadcast in other languages, including: The Main Event will also have national coverage in all the languages mentioned above and there will also be the official EMEA Masters Twitch channel, with some of the best and rising casting talents of the EMEA and ERL circuit.

EMEA Masters is the peak ERL competition

The EMEA Masters 2023 Summer is the twelfth edition of Europe’s competition that includes the 13 LoL European Regional Leagues (ERLs), and it’s the best competition below the LEC.  Previously known as EU Masters, this is the second edition of the tournament that sees TR, CIS, and MENA added as ERLs, thus becoming EMEA.

After the end of the spring splits from each ERLs, the best teams will participate at the EMEA Masters, representing their country and fighting for glory. Below is the list of the 13 regional leagues:

  • Arabian League 2023 (Middle East & North Africa)
  • Elite Series (Benelux)
  • Esports Balkan League (Balkans)
  • Greek Legends League (Greece & Cyprus)
  • Hitpoint Masters (Czech Republic & Slovakia)
  • La Ligue Française (France)
  • Liga Portuguesa de League Of Legends (Portugal)
  • Northern League Of Legends Championship (UK & Nordics)
  • PG Nationals (Italy)
  • Prime League (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
  • Superliga (Spain)
  • TCL (Turkey)
  • Ultraliga (Poland & Baltics)
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EMEA Masters Summer 2023 Tournament Format and Schedule

Just like the Spring edition, EMEA Masters Summer 2023 will feature a total of 28 teams that will compete against each other over the course of four weeks. 12 teams will qualify directly to the group stage, while the remaining 16 will go through play-ins.

Play-ins

The play-ins stage starts on August 14, where the 16 teams will be split into four groups in a double round-robin. The top two from each group go to Knockouts, where the best four qualify for the second phase (matches will be Bo3).

Depending on the strength and importance, each region will get either three or two seeds, with some regions getting one or two seeds to the group stage, and others getting both teams in play-ins. The play-in schedule is:

  • August 14, 15, 17

Group Stage

At this point, the 16 teams left will go at it once again in a double round-robin, with the top two of each group advancing to the next stage. Group Stage will begin on August 21 and it will be Bo1 matches.

  • Day 1: August 21
  • Day 2: August 22
  • Day 3: August 23
  • Day 4: August 24

Knockout Stage

The knockout stage sees the eight best teams competing in a Bo5 single elimination bracket. Starting with the Quarterfinals on August 28, the winner will be declared on Friday, September 8. Below is the full schedule for the Knockout Stage:

  • Quarterfinals: August 28, August 29
  • Semifinals: August 31, September 1
  • Grand Final: September 8
Read also: LEC Season Finals 2023 - Everything you need to know

EMEA Masters Summer 2023 Participating Teams

Play-in

Pool 1 

  • Team GO
  • FUT Esports
  • NORD Esports
  • Dsyre Esports

Pool 2

  • Diamant Esports
  • Anorthossis Famagusta
  • GTZ Esports
  • Team 7AM

Pool 3 

  • Entropiq
  • Anubis Gaming
  • Partizan Esports
  • We Love Gaming

Pool 4

  • White Dragons
  • KRC Genk Esports
  • BRUTE
  • Nigma Galaxy

GTZ Esports, Team GO, Anorthosis Famagusta, and Dsyre Esports are the four teams that qualified to the group stage.

EMEA Masters summer 2023

Image Credits | Riot Games

Group Stage

Pool 1 

  • Instanbul Wildcats
  • Karmine Corp
  • SK Gaming Prime
  • Movistar Riders

Pool 2

  • Nativz
  • Orbit Anonymo
  • NASR Turkey
  • BK ROG Esports

Pool 3

  • BISONS ECLUB
  • UOL Sexy Edition
  • AliorBank team
  • Macko Esports

Pool 4

  • GTZ Esports
  • Team GO
  • Anorthosis Famagusta
  • Dsyre Esports

Group Stage Draw Results

Group A 

  • DenizBank Instanbul Wildcats
  • GTZ Esports
  • Orbit Anonymo Esports
  • BISONS ECLUB

Group B 

  • BK ROG Esports
  • SK Gaming Prime
  • Dsyre Esports
  • AliorBank Team

Group C

  • Macko Esports
  • Karmine Corp
  • Nativz
  • Anorthosis Famagusta

Group D

  • Movistar Riders
  • Team GO
  • NASR eSports Turkey
  • Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition

Knockout Stage

The top two of each group will head to the knockout stage, where each 1st place team will face a 2nd place team in a single elimination bracket. Matches are Bo5.

  • DenizBank Istanbul Wildcats – Group A #1
  • GTZ Esports – Group A #2
  • BK ROG Esports – Group B #1
  • SK Gaming Prime – Group B #2
  • Macko Esports  – Group C #1
  • Karmine Corp – Group C #2
  • Team GO – Group D #1
  • Movistar Riders – Group D #2

EU Masters Winners, Teams and History

EU Masters teams fight for the grand prize of €40k out of €150,000. More importantly teams and players fight for a shot to be noticed and scouted by the LEC franchised organizations.

While it’s been this way for some time, the first iteration of the EU Masters event had a slightly different setup – not only was the format different, but so were the participating teams. Additionally, there were fewer teams participating as well – the number of teams has been increasing steadily since then.

Of course, not everything has changed – there are even teams that have been part of the European Masters since the very first time – among them Misfits, BIG and Illuminar Gaming. No wonder there – Illuminar came in second in their first iteration of the EU Masters. Misfits won the 3rd version of the event, while Big won the 4th – Illuminar has yet to claim a win, despite having taken part since the beginning.

The nine EU Masters Champions thus far are:

  1. Origen 2018 Spring
  2. MAD Lions 2018 Summer
  3. Misfits Premier 2019 Spring
  4. BIG 2019 Summer
  5. LDLC OL 2020 Spring
  6. AGO Rogue 2020 Summer
  7. Karmine Corp 2021 Spring
  8. Karmine Corp 2021 Summer
  9. Karmine Corp 2022 Spring
  10. Team Heretics 2022 Summer
  11. İstanbul Wildcats 2023 Spring

If you are familiar with any of this organizations you would know that each of this winners gave the world some of the best League players right now. Crownshot, Nemesis and Selfmade all came out of the 2018 Mad Lions roster. Both LIDER and Neon came out of Misfits Premier, while BIG gave us Carzzy, Labrov and WhiteKnight. Finally, AGO Rogue produced us Zanzarah, Czekolad, Szygenda and the latest winner Karmine gave us former Fnatic toplaner Adam, while taking in LEC legends Rekkles and Cabochard.

All of this just points toward the level of talent in EU Masters as the proving grounds for the European League of Legends scene.

You’ll still see some familiar team names though, as teams like Fnatic, G2, mousesports, Misfits and Ninjas in Pyjamas all field rosters in the competition. Naturally limited to European team, the players here are all from competitions at European Regional levels. EU Masters is a great place for LoL fans to spot new talent before they sign onto one of the ‘big’ pro teams!

The EU Masters 2022 Summer Season begins on August 28th through September 25th. For the first time in three seasons, Karmine Corp will not be able to defend their trophy after being eliminated from the LPL.

EU Masters 2022 Format

In 2022, the European Masters is officially going into its eight and ninth iterations. 28 of the top teams in the region are participating after fighting through their respective national and regional leagues. Out of the lot, sixteen teams participate in the Play-ins, while the other 12 of them going straight to the Group Stage.

Certain regions will not have a team that can qualify directly to the main stage, and with that said, here are the EU Masters slots:

  • LFL: 2 Play-Ins, 2 Main Stage
  • Ultraliga: 2 Play-Ins, 2 Main Stage
  • Prime League: 1 Play-Ins, 2 Main Stage
  • Superliga: 1 Play-Ins, 2 Main Stage
  • NLC: 1 Play-Ins, 1 Main Stage
  • EBL: 1 Play-Ins, 1 Main Stage
  • PG Nationals: 1 Play-Ins, 1 Main Stage
  • GLL: 1 Play-Ins, 1 Main Stage
  • LPLOL: 2 Play-Ins
  • Hitpoint Masters: 2 Play-Ins
  • Elite Series: 2 Play-Ins

The Play-in itself is also split into two sections – first a smaller group stage, then the knockout stage. In the play-in group stage, the 16 participating teams are split into four double-round-robin groups, where matches in a best-of-one format. The top two from each of the groups continues straight to the Knockout stage.

In Knockouts, each group’s winner fighting another group’s runner-up, in a Bo3 format. Once again, the winner of each match advances to the group stage. In other words – one single match her decides whether or not teams are allowed to continue or not.

Following all this is the full group stage – the 12 teams that qualified directly and the 12 from the play-in are divided into 4 groups, competing in another double-round-robin. Matches are played in a Bo1, and the bottom team will be knocked out of each group, leaving just a few teams to advance to the play-offs. These play-offs are single-elim elimination, with the quarter and semifinals happening in a Bo3 format, and the Grand Final being a Bo5.

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