League of Legends Championship Series

League of Legends Championship Series
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2016 NA LCS season
Sport League of Legends
Founded 2013
Owner(s) Riot Games
Director Dustin “RedBeard” Beck ("chairman")
No. of teams 16[note 1] (2013–2014)
20[note 2] (2015–)
Continent Europe, North America
Most recent champion(s) EU: Fnatic (5th title)
NA: Counter Logic Gaming (1st title)
Most titles EU: Fnatic (5 titles)
NA: Team SoloMid (3 titles)
Related competitions Champions Korea
Garena Premier League
Master Series
Pro League
Relegation to Challenger Series
Official website www.lolesports.com
Notes
  1. ↑ 8 in Europe and 8 in North America
  2. ↑ 10 in Europe and 10 in North America

The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), formerly known as the Riot Championship Series, is the name of two professional League of Legends eSports leagues run by Riot Games. Twenty teams compete in two separate competitions in North America and Europe, with ten teams per continent. Each annual season of play is divided into two splits, spring and summer, both consisting of nine weeks of round-robin tournament play, which then conclude with play-off tournaments between the top six teams from each region. At the end of the season, the highest placing three teams in each league qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship.

The LCS represents the highest level of League of Legends play in Europe and North America. The LCS has a promotion and relegation system; the bottom teams in the LCS from each split compete with the top teams from the Challenger Series (CS) to compete for spots in the next split of the LCS. The Challenger Series in each continent is composed of six teams: three teams which failed to advance in the previous promotion tournament, one team from the previous CS split, and the top two teams from ranked ladder play in the respective public League of Legends online game server.

With the exception of some touring events, all games of the LCS are played live at Riot Games' studios in Los Angeles, California, United States and Adlershof, Berlin, Germany. In addition to a small studio audience, all games are streamed live in several languages on Twitch.tv, YouTube and Azubu, with broadcasts regularly attracting over 300,000 viewers.[1]

The popularity and success of the LCS has attracted significant media attention. The US government has begun to grant athlete visas for LCS competitors.[2] The LCS has also attracted sponsorships from Coca-Cola[3] and American Express.[4] "League of Legends Championship Series" is a Delaware limited liability company.[5]

History

Riot Games launched League of Legends in October 2009 and rapidly attracted[6] attention from the competitive gaming community. The first two seasons of competitive play consisted of a series of tournaments mostly organized by third parties, such as Major League Gaming in North America, and Intel Extreme Masters in Europe, capped by a world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games.[7]

Riot Games announced the formation of the LCS on 6 August 2012,[8] creating a fully professional league run by the company with a regular schedule and guaranteed salaries for players, featuring eight teams in both North America and Europe. Since the LCS was only launched in the third year of professional play, it was immediately dubbed "Season 3". The top three finishers in both the Riot Games North American and European regional championships held in August 2012 automatically qualified, with the remaining five teams being decided in qualifier tournaments held in January 2013. Each LCS season is divided into two splits for spring and summer; the first games of the first spring split took place on 7 February 2013 in North America and on 9 February 2013 in Europe.

Season 3 of the LCS finished with the summer split playoffs, held on 30 August to 1 September 2013 in North America[9] and 23 to 25 August in Europe.[10] In North America, Cloud9 finished first, with Team SoloMid placing second and Team Vulcun placing third. In Europe, the top three finishers were Fnatic, Lemondogs and Gambit Gaming. The top three teams from each continent advanced to the Season 3 World Championships.

Riot Games changed naming conventions in 2014, calling the season the "2014 Season" instead of "Season 4". The Challenger Series was created for this season, creating a second tier of competition for promotion and relegation and a clear pathway for players to become professionals.[11]

At the end of the 2014 season, an expansion tournament was held in both North America and Europe that added two teams in region, giving the LCS a total of 10 teams per region for the start of the 2015 Season.[12] Additionally, Riot introduced the concept of "Championship points", which teams would earn based on performance across both splits and playoffs in order to qualify for the World Championship.[13]

A new sale of sponsorship rule was instated for the 2015 season. As a result, several teams were forced to rebrand and leave their respective parent organizations. North America's Evil Geniuses and Europe's Alliance are both owned by GoodGame Inc. CEO Alex Garfield, and thus their League of Legends teams left and became Winterfox and Elements, respectively. Curse Inc. could no longer sponsor LCS team Team Curse, thus the entire esports organization merged into Team Liquid.[14]

Format

As of 2015, 10 teams from North America and 10 teams from Europe compete separately in the North American and European LCS. Each season is divided into two splits, with opportunities for promotion and relegation preceding each split. Regular play in each split consists of 9 weeks of play consisting of 10 games per week. Each team on each continent plays each other team in the league twice for a total of 18 games played per team. Teams are ranked by win percentage, with ties allowed in regular season. For the purpose of seeding playoff positions, a tiebreaker is played to split a tie.[15]

At the conclusion of each split, a playoff is played to determine the final standings. The top 6 teams determined via regular season standings are eligible for the playoffs, with the top 2 teams receiving a bye into the semi-finals. Teams placing 3–6 play each other in quarter-finals to determine who among them play the teams ranked 1 and 2 in the semi-finals. Each split's playoffs award cash prizes and Championship Points, which are used to determine qualification into the annual League of Legends World Championship. In each continent, the winner of the summer split and the next team with the highest amount of Championship Points automatically qualify. The next five teams ranked by Championship Point total then play the Regional Qualifier tournament to determine the final qualifying team.[16]

The top seven teams of the regular season automatically qualify for the next split. The 10th-placed team in the regular season is relegated to the Challenger Series and is replaced by the Challenger Series champion. The 8th- and 9th-placed team of the regular season must compete in a promotion tournament with the 2nd and 3rd place team of the Challenger Series to determine the remaining two teams for the following split, with the 8th-placed team from the LCS getting choice of opponent.[17]

Media Coverage

The LCS primarily reaches its viewers through online streaming using its own channels on Twitch and YouTube. On Twitch alone, viewership numbers regularly exceed 200,000 for regular season play,[1] and the games have drawn over 1.7 million unique visitors.[2] However, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck stated in 2012 that there were no immediate plans to try to bring the LCS to traditional TV, and news coverage of the regular season is generally limited to dedicated electronic sports news sites, such as CBS Interactive's onGamers.[18]

The scale and popularity of the LCS itself, however, has attracted considerable media attention,[19] particularly around some events that legitimized the LCS as a serious competition. In 2013, the United States Department of State began awarding P1 athletic visas to LCS players. The first LCS player to be awarded a P visa was Danny "Shiphtur" Le.[2][20][21]

Teams

North America

Team Position in 2015 Summer Split First appearance in LCS Number of splits in LCS
Cloud9 7th Summer 2013 5
Counter Logic Gaming 1st Spring 2013 6
Echo Fox[lower-alpha 1] N/A Spring 2016 0
Immortals[lower-alpha 2] N/A Spring 2016 0
LA Renegades N/A Spring 2016 0
NRG eSports[lower-alpha 3] N/A Spring 2016 0
Team Dignitas 5th–6th Spring 2013 6
Team Impulse 4th Summer 2014 3
Team Liquid 3rd Spring 2013 6
Team SoloMid 2nd Spring 2013 6

Europe

Team Position in 2015 Summer Split First appearance in LCS Number of splits in LCS
Elements[lower-alpha 4] 7th Spring 2014 4
Fnatic 1st Spring 2013 6
G2 Esports N/A Spring 2016 0
Giants Gaming 5–6th Spring 2013 3
H2k-Gaming 3rd Spring 2015 2
Origen 2nd Summer 2015 1
Splyce[lower-alpha 5] N/A Spring 2016 0
Team ROCCAT 5–6th Spring 2014 4
Team Vitality[lower-alpha 6] N/A Spring 2016 0
Unicorns of Love 4th Spring 2015 2
Team notes
  1. ↑ Spot aquired from Gravity Gaming[22]
  2. ↑ Spot aquired from Team 8[23]
  3. ↑ Spot aquired from Team Coast[24]
  4. ↑ Was part of Alliance prior to Spring 2015
  5. ↑ Spot aquired from Team Dignitas EU, due to the organisation having two LCS teams[25]
  6. ↑ Spot aquired from Gambit Gaming[26]

Past winners

North America

Split 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
2013 Spring Team SoloMid Good Game University Team Vulcun Team Curse
2013 Summer Cloud9 Team SoloMid Team Vulcun Team Dignitas
2014 Spring Cloud9 Team SoloMid Counter Logic Gaming Team Curse
2014 Summer Team SoloMid Cloud9 LMQ Team Curse
2015 Spring Team SoloMid Cloud9 Team Liquid Team Impulse
2015 Summer Counter Logic Gaming Team SoloMid Team Liquid Team Impulse

Europe

Split 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
2013 Spring Fnatic Gambit Gaming Evil Geniuses SK Gaming
2013 Summer Fnatic Lemondogs Gambit Gaming Evil Geniuses
2014 Spring Fnatic SK Gaming Team ROCCAT Alliance
2014 Summer Alliance Fnatic SK Gaming Team ROCCAT
2015 Spring Fnatic Unicorns of Love H2k-Gaming SK Gaming
2015 Summer Fnatic Origen H2k-Gaming Unicorns of Love

References

  1. 1 2 Kwilinski, Darin. "LCS retains viewers during the Super Bowl". onGamers. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Dave, Paresh. "Online game League of Legends star gets U.S. visa as pro athlete". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ Gaudiosi, John. "Why eSports are attracting sponsors like Coke". Fortune. Time Inc. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ Peel, Jeremy. "American Express to sponsor LCS Season 3 and Staples Center final: "We're stepping up and saying this is no longer niche"". PCGamesN. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ "ABOUT". LoL Esports. Riot Games. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Attraction in League Of Legends". nytimes. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
  7. ↑ "International Tournaments". esportspedia. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Riot Games Shares its Vision for the Future of Esports, Reveals Initial Details of League of Legends Championship Series" (PDF). Riot Games. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  9. ↑ "North America Season 3 Summer Playoffs". esportspedia. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Europe Season 3 Summer Playoffs". esportspedia. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  11. ↑ Sarkar, Samit. "How the new League of Legends Challenger league will create a pathway to the pros". Polygon. Vox Media.
  12. ↑ Deesing, Jonathan (November 19, 2014). "Expansion Tournament Adds Two Teams to LCS". Red Bull GmbH. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  13. ↑ Deesing, Jonathan (January 14, 2015). "Riot Adds Points System to LCS, Modifies Schedule". Red Bull GmbH. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  14. ↑ Lingle, Samuel (December 19, 2014). "Curse Gaming gives up its name". The Daily Dot. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Season Three Official Rules" (PDF). Riot Games. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  16. ↑ Cocke, Taylor. "Everything you need to know about the lcs playoffs and regional qualifiers". League of Legends Championship Series. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  17. ↑ "2014 EU Challenger Series/Spring Series". esportspedia. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  18. ↑ Rom, Kim (November 7, 2013). "Welcome to the onGamers beta". onGamers. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
  19. ↑ Snider, Mike. "'League of Legends' makes big league moves". USA Today. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  20. ↑ Lejacq, Yannick. "Score! Professional video gamers awarded athletic visas". NBC News. NBCUniversal. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  21. ↑ Welch, Chris. "'League of Legends' gamer granted US visa recognizing him as professional athlete". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  22. ↑ Lewis, Richard (December 18, 2015). "NBA Legend Rick Fox Purchases ‘League of Legends’ Franchise". Breitbart. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  23. ↑ Hussain, Tamoor (October 7, 2015). "League of Legends Team-8 Acquired and Rebranded "Immortals," Expansion into Dota 2, Counter-Strike Planned". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  24. ↑ Rosen, Daniel (November 16, 2015). "NRG eSports acquire NA LCS spot; sign Impact, GBM, Moon and konkwon". theScore eSports. theScore Inc. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  25. ↑ "Million-dollar deal for pro-gaming team". BBC. November 3, 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  26. ↑ Sillis, Ben (December 9, 2015). "Team Vitality is coming to League of Legends". Red Bull GmbH. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
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