Psyonix announce RLCS 2022-23!
After nearly two months of waiting, the RLCS 2022-23 season has finally been announced! Psyonix released all of the info today, including regional names, formats, and dates. Here’s a breakdown of everything you might’ve missed:
New(ish) Format
The only change to the regional alignment this season is the combining of APAC-North and APAC-South into one single APAC region. Just like the last two seasons, there will be Fall, Winter, and Spring Splits in a point-based circuit system. Each of these Splits has three events of 16 teams, but they work a little differently now:
There’s an Open, a Cup, and an Invitational in each Split;
The Fall Open is filled solely by Open Qualifiers, while the Winter and Spring will have eight slots filled by the top eight teams in each region based on overall points, and eight slots filled through Open Qualifiers;
The Cups will have eight teams qualify based on overall points, and eight teams from the Open Qualifiers;
The Invitationals will see the top 16 teams in total RLCS points to that point in the season compete.
As far as the international Majors go, qualification remains the same as the previous season, with the top teams in each region qualifying based on points from that Split. Points at Majors will heavily outweigh points from regionals, but the overall total will be lower (the maximum number of points a team could earn from a perfect season is 300, as opposed to the 5,262 last season).
The Fall Split events will consist of a 16-team Swiss Stage feeding into an eight-team single elimination bracket, the Winter Split will be four groups of four playing a round-robin to feed into a 12-team single elimination bracket, and the Spring Split will be the tried-and-true double elimination tournament. The World Championship format and qualifying are unchanged, except for the new APAC region.
Key Dates
Roster Lock will be 11:59 p.m. local time on September 25th for APAC, MENA, NA, and OCE, and at the same time on October 3rd for EU, SAM, and SSA. Sign-ups are live on Thursday, September 22nd at 10 a.m. PT (5 p.m. UTC). Regionals begin with the Fall Open, which is October 6-8 in MENA, 7-9 in NA, 8-9 in APAC, and 14-16 in EU, OCE, SAM, and SSA.
Broadcast times are at:
7 p.m. JST (3 a.m. PT) for APAC
3 p.m. UTC (8 a.m. PT) for EU
10 a.m. PT (5 p.m. UTC) for NA
6 p.m. KSA (8 a.m. PT) for MENA
5 p.m. AEDT (11 p.m. PT) for OCE
4 p.m. BRT (12 p.m. PT) for SAM
5 p.m. SAST (8 a.m. PT) for SSA.
The Major dates have also been announced much earlier than last season! The Fall Major will be December 8-11, with the season’s first rostermania opening December 13 and lasting until January 8, 2023. The Winter Major will be April 6-9, with the second Rostermania April 11-24. The Spring Major will be July 6-9, with the World Championship coming August 4-6 for the Wildcard and 8-13 for the Main Event.
The roster lock still looms, so make sure to keep following Shift for more rostermania rumours and all of your RLCS news!
