The League of Legends World Championship or Worlds is one of the most exciting tournaments to watch as the top teams from each region across the world battle it out to be crowned the champion. Worlds 2023 kicked off on 10th October with the Play-In stage and currently, the brand new format, the Swiss Stage, is underway at the tournament.
A lot of picks have been pivotal at Worlds 2023. Champions like Orianna, Kai'Sa, Xayah, K'Sante and Alistar are, at the time of writing this article, the top five most-picked champions at the Worlds 2023 Main Event, according to Games of Legends.
When we are talking about important picks and bans at the tournament, fans have been wondering about new champion Briar at the world championship.
Here's all we know about Briar's presence at Worlds 2023.
Is Briar Disabled at Worlds 2023?
The short answer to this question is: Yes. Briar is not available for play at Worlds 2023. League of Legends esports fans should know that this was not a last-minute decision.
Notably, this has always been the case. Other champions from the past who were also launched in League of Legends relatively close to the start of Worlds — Lucian in 2013, Ornn in 2017, and Yone in 2020 — were not enabled for the tournament.
This is because Riot Games has certain policies in place to maintain the competitive integrity of international tournaments including Worlds and Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).
According to Riot Games' official rulings, “New champions and VGUs [Visual and Gameplay Update] must be enabled for playoffs in all four of the top regions in order to be playable at the next international tournament."
Going by this rule, it became evident that Briar would not be available for play at Worlds 2023, just like how Yuumi and Milio were disabled for MSI 2023.
Additionally, in July 2023, Riot Games developer Andrei "Meddler" van Roon confirmed this. He wrote on Reddit, "Yeah, Naafiri will be playable at Worlds, Briar will not be."
If you are a fan of watching new champions at Worlds and are looking to learn strats and playstyles, you will be happy to note that Naafiri, a relatively new champion, is available for play at Worlds 2023.
However, Naafiri has a 0% presence in the tournaments with 0 pick and 0 bans, given the way the meta is preferring other tanky and engaging junglers.