In 2020, no American team made it out of the group stage of the Worlds in League of Legends. Teams from Korea, China, and Europe dominated the tournament. In 2021, this is supposed to change, and adjustments to the regular season for the teams are being made.
What happened? As Riot Games announced, there will be adjustments to the American LoL league LCS in 2021. According to the developers, this change – along with adjustments to the amateur scene – is meant to make America “the competitive region that everyone desires”.
This is a reaction to the poor performance of US teams internationally. In 2019, no American team made it out of the group stage. In 2020, the same picture was observed, with TSM, as the winner of the Summer Playoffs, embarrassingly exiting with a score of 0-6.
What is supposed to change?
- In general, there should be more games per week during the regular season, the Spring, and the Summer Split.
- The Spring Split will once again become more important regarding participation in the Worlds.
- Furthermore, new tournaments are planned to be played during the season.
LCS starts the new season with a tournament
How does the new season begin? Instead of starting directly with the Spring Split, as has been customary, the league will begin with the LCS Lock In. This is a tournament that runs from January 15 to 31 and offers $150,000 to the winner.
All teams in the LCS will participate, with TSM and FlyQuest, the best teams from the previous year, starting in separate groups.
Following the tournament, the regular Spring Split will begin. It runs from February 5 to March 14. New is that on three days – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – five games will be played each day. Each team is therefore required every day.
MSI and Summer Split: After the Spring Split, there will be the Mid-Season Showdown. There, it will be determined which team gets to represent the region at the international Mid-Season Invitational.
Six best teams from the Spring Split will participate in this tournament. The format will be Double Elimination.
After that, the regular Summer Split will take place from June 4 to August 1.
LCS Championship as a highlight
At the end of the season, there will be the LCS Championship. There, the 6 best teams of the entire year will compete against each other. The standings of the Spring and Summer Splits play an important role.
Other changes compared to the Summer Playoffs include:
- The new system is supposed to ensure that teams that have already played against each other will meet again only later.
- There are different dates so a team does not play multiple times a week.
- The team coming from the upper bracket always has side choice.
The best teams from the LCS Championship will then represent America internationally.
Adjustments to the amateur scene
What is changing in the amateur scene? Academy teams and amateur teams will now meet in a large tournament, the LCS Proving Grounds, to determine the best team outside of the LCS.
To do this, a completely new tournament system has been created. This will run parallel to other amateur tournaments carried out by creators or players in general.
How the format will work exactly has been summarized by Riot in a graphic:
Whether this new system will actually help strengthen the American scene will be shown by the Worlds 2021. One of the world champions from 2019, DoinB, sees a different problem in America than the tournament system:
