2023 World Lacrosse Championship

The 2023 World Lacrosse Championship was the 14th edition of the international men's field lacrosse tournament for national teams organized by World Lacrosse. Initially scheduled for 2022, it was postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament was held in San Diego, California.

The tournament was limited to 30 teams for the first time through regional qualifying tournaments. The United States won the tournament on July 1, 2023, in front of a crowd of 15,112, the championship was its 11th in the history of the event.

Hosting
The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL), since renamed World Lacrosse, gave its member associations until the end of September 2016 to formally make its intent to bid known to the international sports body and March 2017 to submit their bid. The winning bid was announced in June 2018.

On June 25, 2018, FIL President Sue Redfern announced that Canada will host the 2022 World Lacrosse Championship in Coquitlam, British Columbia. According to the bidding team of the Canadian Lacrosse Association, it chose Coquitlam as the proposed host city for its bid citing the locality's previous hosting experience of the 2008 and 2016 men's U-19 world championships. On 18 October 2019, the organizing committee withdrew its bid to host the event in Coquitlam. Matches were to be held at the Percy Perry Stadium from July 14–23, 2022.

In October 2019, after the withdrawal of the organization, the championship was moved to California with the aim for better promoting lacrosse for a return to the Summer Olympics. In June 2020, the championship was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2021 World Games to 2021 and 2022 respectively.Los Angeles was named as host city.

In January 2022, the championship was relocated another time, as San Diego was announced as the new host city for 2023. The main venue will be Snapdragon Stadium at San Diego State University, with matches also taking place at Torero Stadium at the University of San Diego and three other fields at San Diego State.

Participating nations
The 2023 World Lacrosse Championship is the first World Lacrosse Championship to set a maximum number of competing teams, capping invitations at 30 national teams. Previous world championship rankings determined automatic qualifiers for 2023 and the number of remaining spots allocated to each Continental Federation. The top 10 full member nations at the conclusion of the 2018 world championship automatically qualified for 2023 with regional qualifiers necessary for remaining teams in the European Lacrosse Federation (11 spots), Pan-American Lacrosse Association (4 spots), Asia Pacific Lacrosse Union (4 spots), and the African Association of Lacrosse (1 spot).

In March 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian teams, athletes, and officials were suspended from participation in World Lacrosse events and qualifiers, and it was decided that no World Lacrosse or European Lacrosse Federation events would be held in Russia.

Finland initially qualified through the European qualifiers, however they withdrew due to funding challenges and were replaced by France, who was the next highest ranked European team.

Qualifying National Teams

* Finland replaced by France after an announcement that they were unable to travel to the 2023 tournament

Schedule

 * Wednesday, 21 June – Opening Game (United States vs Canada)
 * Thursday, 22 June to Monday, 26 June – Pool Play
 * Tuesday, 27 June - First Round Playoff Games & Placement Games
 * Wednesday, 28 June - Quarterfinal Games & Placement Games
 * Thursday, 29 June - Semifinal Games & Placement Games
 * Friday, 30 June - Placement Games
 * Saturday, 1 July - Bronze and Gold Medal Games

Playoff Stage
All participating teams in Pool A are awarded the 1-5 Seeds based on the Pool A Standings. The remaining 5 Pool winners are awarded the 6-10 Seeds based on their records and Goal Differential. The 4 best Pool Runner-Ups from all pools besides Pool A are awarded the 11-14 Seeds.

2nd Place Table
The top 4 teams in the 2nd Place Table make the Championship Playoff Bracket as seeds 11-14. The last place team in this table becomes the 15th seed in the Placement Games

5th to 8th Place Bracket
Teams who lose in the Quarterfinals will play for 5th through 8th Place. Matches based on seedings entering playoffs, with highest 2 seeds playing for 5th place and lowest 2 seeds playing in 7th place.

9th to 14th Place Bracket
Teams who lose in the First Round playoff will play for 9th through 14th place. The losers of the 8 vs 9 and the 7 vs 10 First Round playoff games receive a "bye" into the second round of this bracket for winning their respective pools.

19th to 22nd Place Bracket
Teams who lose their first round game in the above bracket play in the below bracket for 19th through 22nd place.

27th to 30th Place Bracket
Teams who lose their first round game in the above bracket play in the below bracket for 27th through 30th place.

Final standings
The top five teams in the final standings will be in Pool A in the 2027 World Lacrosse Championship. Due to violation of eligibility requirements, the Philippines, who finished 15th in the standings, were shifted to 30th.

Awards
The following awards were given out at the end of the tournament.

MVP: 🇺🇸 Brennan O'Neill

Best Attacker:  Austin Staats

Best Midfielder: 🇺🇸 Brennan O'Neill

Best Defenseman: Jacob Piseno

Statistical Leaders
* Minimum of 200 minutes played