A New Challenger Approaches: The 2015 Challenger Series

Riot·12/15/2014, 4:32:17 PM·1 votes·77,628 views

TL;DR

The Challenger Series (CS) will be changing to a new format that better mirrors the LCS with a six team league with eight weeks of competition (including three weeks of qualifiers).
The 3rd and 4th place teams from the Expansion Tournament will secure pre-qualified spots in the 2015 Spring Challenger Series.
CS Spring Qualifiers will begin on January 20 and Spring Split kicks off on February 4. The Ranked Teams ladder lock date for Spring Qualifiers will be January 12, 2015 at noon local time (CEST/PST) for EU and NA. The ladder will not reset before this date.

Back in September, we shared some of the considerations and definite changes coming to the Challenger Series. We’ve heard the feedback from the community, players and teams. After listening to feedback, we are ready to share key details and adjustments coming to Challenger next season.

Format

2015 Challenger Series The 2015 Challenger Series will be a six team, double round-robin league plus playoffs over an eight week period, with three weeks of qualifiers. There will be two splits, Spring and Summer, similar to the LCS. The regular season will be five weeks long with a dedicated broadcast show on Wednesday. As you may remember from our September update, we’re making this format change to better prepare Challenger teams for the LCS by more closely matching its schedule and format. It’ll also increase the visibility of participating teams because fans will be able to see them in more consistent matchups from week to week.

Qualifying for the Challenger Series

2015 Spring Expansion Tournament The Expansion Tournament is in full swing with two teams joining the LCS in NA - we’ve narrowed the field to the final four teams that’ll compete for the final spots in EU LCS. As mentioned during the Expansion Tournament broadcast, the 3rd and 4th place teams from the Expansion Tournament will automatically earn spots to participate in the 2015 Spring Challenger Series. We want to ensure that amateur teams performing at a high level have a consistent path towards the LCS and remain on the competitive radar. Best of 3 Qualifiers Last season, we introduced the Play-In with the goal of giving a large number of teams a chance to compete for a spot in the LCS. While we hit our goal, the Best of 1 Play-In format created a lot of uncertainty and randomness that could prevent the best teams from qualifying. This season, the Play-In phase will be replaced by the Challenger Series Qualifiers, which takes place over three weeks at the beginning of each split. The Spring Qualifiers will feature 16 teams pulled from the Ranked Teams ladder, competing in four brackets of four in Best of 3 (Bo3) matches. The winner of each bracket will join the two pre-qualified teams from the Expansion Tournament to become part of the Spring Challenger Series. Qualifiers Moving Forward After Spring, the Challenger Series Qualifiers will only bring in up to two new teams per split. Here’s how results will affect teams:

1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams will have an opportunity to enter the LCS.
4th place team will re-qualify for CS for the following split.
5th place and 6th place CS team will automatically be placed in the Qualifiers with byes. Because of the unique bracket format, the Challenger Series Qualifiers will pull 10 teams from the Ranked Teams ladder.

With these changes to Qualifiers, we’re hoping to provide better stability for top Challenger talent and making sure teams who did not make it into the LCS are not forced to sprint grind the Ranked Teams ladder.

Important Dates

Season Start Date Spring Qualifiers will start on January 20 and will wrap up on February 4. CS Spring Split will kick-off on February 17. Spring Qualifiers Participation Want to be part of the Challenger Series? The Ranked Teams ladder lock date for Spring Qualifiers will be January 12, 2015 at noon local time (CEST/PST) for EU and NA. The ladder will not reset before this date.

What’s Next?

With the new Challenger Series format and upcoming changes, we’re aiming to provide a better training ground for the next generation of teams to fight for a coveted spot in the LCS. We'll be sharing more CS information as we get closer to the start of Qualifiers. The new season of the LCS will kick off on January 22, 2015 and we’ll share more information about the changes coming to the LCS in the new year.