*Disclaimer* All information in this post is purely written with a “From what I understand of it” standpoint. It’s possible that I misread something or misunderstood something, but I’m fairly confident with the information is accurate and I’ve done my best to verify the information. Now on with the post! (Also yay for learning about the More tag!)
So, the LCS (League of Legends Champions Series) is right around the corner. This is basically a league where NA teams play solely other NA teams, and EU teams will play solely other EU teams, perhaps similar to what the Asians have with OGN (Korea) and Garena StarsWars League (I thought this was Taiwan, but there are a few Korean teams thrown in also). I’ve never watched or really kept up with those leagues, preferring to watch the big tournaments such as IPLs, IEMs, and MLGs. Still, I’m excited. With a league like this, you get to watch top teams play against each other every week, rather than every 2 months. In addition, all of the constant competition should be good for the players and the teams, and I hope to see a lot of improvement, especially from the NA scene. I don’t hate the NA scene, but I do think they’re behind the other regions in terms of competitive power. The EU scene at least looks strong with Gambit Gaming stepping their game up, and Fnatic continuing to do a fantastic job. Hopefully the new Evil Geniuses will come back strong as the league starts. They’ve just recently begun practicing hard as a team and will be moving into a gaming house in Germany soon.
So, what are the rules/format/teams of these leagues? Starting off with the rules and format:
Teams: Teams shall consist of its 5 main members, but are required to have at least 2 subs, with a max of 5. This will prevent issues such as last minute substitutions or forfeits if someone is unable to play that day.
The League: Each league, NA and EU, consists of the 8 top teams in the region. 3 teams had qualified from previous regional tournaments, and 16 teams fought hard in the LCS qualifiers to claim the last 5 spots.
Pros and amateurs: The top 8 teams of each region are considered the pros. These professional teams are salaried by Riot on top of money from their sponsors. Not only do the players have wages, but Riot is also granting some money towards gaming houses for each team, or putting a bit of funding towards transportation for teams that will travel from home. Pro teams cannot compete in “amateur” tournaments such as the IPLs, IEMs, and MLGs, mentioned above. However substitutes from the pro teams are allowed to join amateur teams and compete with them.
Matches: Each week, teams will play against each other, and the winners will receive points. The number of points determine their standing in the series against the teams. NA matches are played Thursday and Friday, while EU matches are held Saturday and Sunday. I believe these matches will be held inside a studio.
Streaming: All matches are to be streamed in HD quality.
Mid-season playoffs and danger: At the Mid-Season Playoffs, the top 6 teams will compete in a tournament for prizes (money). Top 2 teams get a bye and then third, fourth, fifth, and sixth will have to go through another round before facing off against the top two in the semi-finals. Whichever two teams didn’t make it into the top four from there joins the seventh and eighth place teams in a fight to keep their place in the pro series.
Chances for amateur teams: Throughout the season, the amateur teams will play in the tournaments and rack up points themselves. While the top four teams (first place, second place, and the two who made it through the wildcard round) play their matches for prize money, the remaining four teams will compete the top four amateur teams (based on accumulated points from tournaments) and the top four teams that come out of that fight will replace (or keep their spot) the current pro teams. These might also include teams from the Challenger ranking in the new ranked system perhaps?
All-star fun!: Possible all-star tournament around this time separated by regions after the mid-season changes.
Seasons end and the World Championships: The second half of the season is much like the first with teams playing each other weekly to get points, but the top teams this time enter the World Championships and play against the top teams from the other regions, including Korea and China.
That’s pretty much all for the formatting I believe. If I was unclear about something or if you wish for more elaboration, Travis’ vlog is where I got a lot of the information from. He’s got the inside goodies.
So which teams actually made it into the official Pro scene?
NA teams: The 3 who were previously qualified are:
The 5 that qualified through the NA LCS qualifiers, and the top of the 16 teams:
The EU Teams: The 3 teams previously qualified are:
The 5 teams that qualified through the EU LCS Qualifiers are:
So those are the teams that have made it through. I’m hoping to see strong showings from all of them and more so than that, I hope for overall improvement and more competition worldwide. Wouldn’t it be fun for one of these new teams to take down the Asian powerhouses?
Pros and cons of the LCS:
Good new first or bad news first? Well… Lets start with the good news.
Pros:
Like I mentioned, the good news is that the pros are now getting salaries giving them more motivation.
Only playing in the LCS and LCS events give them something to focus on and then practice in between that constantly, consistently, and seriously. Before teams tried to enter as many online and offline tournaments as they could to earn money and points and things like that. With all that going on the side, there was very little consistent scheduling. Now there are weekly matches and a weekly schedule for them to follow as professionals.
Great matches 4 days a week. Not bad. Thursdays – Sundays every week during the season, we get to watch top teams clash against each other in HD, followed by more of the same during playoffs and finals.
Potential all-star matches! I love all-star matches!
Cons:
Less international interaction. And when I say less… I mean much less. NA will play NA, EU will play EU, and Asia will stick to Asia all the way up until the World Championships at the end of the season.
Amateur tournaments will have less viewings. I can’t say that the teams are unknown… but if there are a lot of people like me, those tournaments will be getting less viewers because they aren’t considered top teams at the moment. I like league, but I only like to watch teams that I personally like a lot, or big tournaments.
Difficulty seeing those international teams play. I guess this could kind of go with the first point. The only way to watch Asian teams live for a while now will be to wake early and watch Starswars League of OGN. That’s… 5 in the morning for me to get a chance to watch the teams I like live. Well, I can always watch the videos that are recorded on Twitch.tv afterwards but… I like watching things live and rarely watch replays afterwards (unless once again major tournament).
I’m not sure if its a pro or a con… but its certainly an concern, I think. Each region will develop its own meta-games. Simply put, NA teams will be playing against NA styles and learning from NA styles. but will probably have little experience against Korean, Chinese, or even EU strategies and tactics. Because they will be playing so many games against teams from the same region and so little against other regions, the difference between strategies in different regions is going to grow. Of course, it is always possible that they will scrim against teams from other regions to try and pick up new tactics, new picks, and new play styles. I hope this is the case, because I’d hate to see the games getting stale with the same bans/picks/strategies every game. Honestly I enjoyed watching the Asian teams because they would pull out these seemingly strange picks and strategies and then making them work. and while I’m not saying that NA or EU should emulate their style, but changing things up would be great from time to time. Or all the time. Just to keep things fresh (without trolling).
I think that’s all about the LCS. Want to know more about the esports scene? Want to know the game schedule? Guess what just opened up? North American Page Europe (West) Page. As far as I can tell, EUW and EUNE schedule same.
matthewchanyy 
Reblogged this on twohp's adventures in the League of Legends and commented:
An excellent explanation of the LCS. I couldn’t have said it any better myself – so I didn’t! 😉