Last week I talked about reasons for everyone to get into eSports and that finding a team to support, and starting this week, I will go over the main competitive body of League of Legends in the west, League Championship Series, the LCS. This series set is used in North America and Europe, with some of the smaller regions close-by following the same rulesets and formats. It is worthwhile to note that the regions allow 2 imported players to join active rosters, while there is a grandfather rule implemented, which states that players who have resided in a region long enough, count as being from that region. Both series have 10 competing teams who face two different teams each week over the course of 2-3 days depending on scheduling. Previous years have used a best of 1 format, but the format changed last summer when the North American series introduced a best of three format and the European variant introduced a two-game series, allowing teams to tie; however, this is changing in the upcoming spring split starting in 2017, with the formats matching in both regions. Par the LCS rules, the bottom 3 LCS teams face relegation, which determines which Challenger series teams get into the LCS and which of the current teams drops out of LCS.
A season in the LCS consists of 2 splits, held in summer and in spring, with international events after each one, to which the teams who won their respective splits are invited to. In addition to this, there is a point tally system in place for the 2nd international event, the Worlds Championship, which guarantees the major regions a certain amount of teams representing them. The winner of the Spring Split gains 90 points toward the World Championship whilst getting them invited to the Mid-Season Invitational. Winning the Summer Split however guarantees that the team will be going to the Worlds event as the region’s 1st seed, the team with the highest point score is guaranteed the 2nd seed, while the rest of the top 6 teams from the two splits have to go head to head in a ladder format, with lower scoring teams having to play the teams who have had higher scores. It is important to note that if a team scored well in spring but had to face the relegation tournament in the other split, their championship points will be forfeit.
Cloud 9 is one of the top North American teams.
Focusing in on the North American series, the region is best-known housing well-known eSports teams, such as TSM and Cloud 9. While historically NA has been seen as a weaker region due to poor international performances, the region has developed into somewhat of a powerhouse, having invested in the infrastructure of teams, including sports psychologists, coaches, and team houses. As the teams have invested more into their setups, it has also recently garnered the attention of investors from major sports teams and personalities, such as Rick Fox, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Golden State Warriors to name a few.
The current list of 10 teams is as follows, based on their placement and win-loss ratio at the end of the Summer Split of 2016, including their seeding for the Worlds Championship based on points for both splits.
- Team SoloMid (17-1) #1st seed
- Immortals (16-2) Cloud9 (12-6) #3rd seed
- Counter Logic Gaming (10-8) #2nd seed
- Team Liquid (9-9)
- Team EnvyUs (8-10)*
- Apex Gaming (8-10)***
- Phoenix1 (5-13)
- Echo Fox (1-17)
- C9C (NEW)**
*Team EnvyUs won the head-to-head matchup, placing higher than Apex Gaming.
Apex Gaming was bought out by an investor backed Team Dignitas, reviving the team since the loss of their LCS spot in the spring split of 2016 **
*** C9C beat NRG to get into the LCS, team spot was acquired by the Milwaukee Bucks, name of the new team is not yet known.
Switching over to the other side of the Atlantic, the European LCS is coming off their best of 2 format, which is changing into the same best of 3 style. There is no major difference in the rules. EU also has a rule on the amount of foreign players the teams are allowed to have, with the exceptions of the nations within Europe not counting toward the foreign player count. While North America has larger investors, European sports organizations have begun to run their own eSports teams with the German Schalke 04 and French Paris Saint-Germain having a presence in the Challenger Series. The region boasts the most venerable eSports team in League of Legends, Fnatic, which has been around the scene since its inception, even winning the first World Championship.
As with the American scene, EU has 10 teams of its own, with their corresponding win-draw-loss ratio listed:
- G2 Esports (10-8-0) #1st seed
- Splyce (9-6-3) #3rd seed
- GIANTS! Gaming (8-3-7)
- H2k-Gaming (7-6-5) #2nd seed
- Fnatic (7-6-5)
- Unicorns of Love (6-5-7)
- Vitality (3-9-6)
- Origen (2-8-8)
- ROCCAT (2-6-10)
- Misfits (NEW) *
*Misfits qualified for the EU LCS after beating Schalke 04 in the promotion/relegation tournament
A belated Merry Christmas to all of the readers, hopefully, this article got you interested in the League of Legends LCS, next week I will talk about the power rankings of the teams in the North American league.
