The first berth in the 2023 LEC Winter season Split playoff stage was on the line in today’s match in between Vitality and KOI, and KOI wasted no time at all gobbling it up. With 2 fast wins, KOI punched their ticket to the leading 4, becoming the very first group to reach the very first edition of the Less glossy new playoff bracket.

Plus, the addition of best-of series in the regular season permits groups who may have struggled in the best-of-one round-robin portion of the schedule to recuperate in a different environment. In Lois case, the team went 4-5 in the very first stage of the split– a far cry from their run to the LEC championship last summer as Rogue. However, in the group phase, they travelled through their two structured series easily.

This past off season, the LEC completely revamped its format, and the changes have already paid dividends. Regardless of the playoff phase of each split consisting of fewer teams, the group phase of the Winter Split has actually had a playoff environment to it so far, with each best-of-three series making teams feel as though their split really might be on the line.

Related: Why other LoL esports areas should consider adopting the Less new season format

Today, KOI looked probably the very best they have all season, particularly in the second game of the match, which looked like all but a formality for KOI after they leapt out to an exponential gold lead just a couple of minion waves into the video game. Game 2 saw KOI earn three fast kills in the bottom lane prior to the five-minute mark, allowing them to snowball their lead way out of control in the mid-game. In game two, KOI had the best game intact all the way till 15 minutes in when Vitality shockingly won a team fight while playing from a 5,000 gold deficit.

Another playoff certification match will occur later on today between the top two teams in Group B: MAD Lions and G2 Esports.

Although we’ve yet to see any losers bracket matches, the prospect of looming elimination makes every video game feel that a lot more extreme. Following their defeat today, Vigor will drop into the losers bracket of Group A, where they’ll face the winner of next week’s Heretics/SK Gaming match in a dire advance-or-go-home series.