2018 NA LCS Spring Split

Riot·Dec 18, 2017·1 votes·151,965 views

TL;DR:

NA LCS returns on January 20. Bo1 is back!
NA LCS has a new start time. Pre-game coverage begins at 1:30 PM PT with the picks and bans beginning for the first game starting at 2:00 PM PT.
NA LCS will no longer run on Fridays, only Saturday and Sundays.
NA LCS games are available on Lolesports, Twitch, and YouTube.
NA LCS will be broadcasted on the Riot Games Twitch channel.
Academy League information will be coming later this week.

With All-Star 2017 wrapped up, we’re heading full steam ahead to an exciting new year of North American esports. Here are some details about the upcoming 2018 NA LCS Spring Split:

How to watch the NA LCS Spring Split

You can get all the action on Lolesports, Twitch, and YouTube. For Twitch fans, we’ll be moving the NA LCS broadcast to the Riot Games channel, so make sure you follow and get notifications.

NA LCS pre-game coverage will begin at 1:30 PM PT. The picks and bans phase of the first game of the day will begin at 2:00 PM PT on game days.

As seen in Summer Split, our post-show “NA LCS Tonight” will return on Sundays to recap the week.

Permanent Teams

Earlier this year, we started announced our plans to move into a permanent partnership structure for the NA LCS. Last month, we announced the 10 teams who will be a part of the NA LCS, including:

100 Thieves (100)
Cloud9 (C9)
Clutch Gaming (CG)
Counter Logic Gaming (CLG)
Echo Fox (FOX)
FlyQuest (FLY)
Golden Guardians (GGS)
Optic Gaming (OPT)
Team Liquid (TL)
TSM (TSM)

We’ll share more information on Lolesports about rosters, when rosters will be listed on Lolesports, and how rosters will operate between NA LCS and Academy, closer to start of Spring Split in January.

Bo1 is back

As we previously announced, NA LCS will be switching back to Best of 1 (Bo1) for the upcoming season.

New start time

NA LCS will begin at 2:00 PM PT on Saturdays and Sundays to avoid overlap with the EU LCS.

Based on community feedback and the updated format, we moved our start time back 2 hours to allow for fans to be able to watch both NA and EU English broadcasts on the weekends.

Game days on weekends

We will no longer play NA LCS games on Fridays. Game days will be only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Spring Split dates

The regular season for the 2018 Spring Split will take place over 9 weeks, from January 20 to March 18. Since we no longer have a promotion tournament with our new permanent partnership structure, we’ll be removing the week between Week 9 and Playoffs, so Quarterfinals will start the weekend after Week 9.

Playoffs will continue to be Best of 5 and take place over 3 weeks:

Quarterfinals: March 24 to 25
Semifinals: March 31 to April 1
Finals: April 7 to 8

We’ll announce ticket information for Playoffs and the location of the NA LCS Spring Finals after the NA LCS Spring Split kicks off. We’ll confirm this information as an article and on the broadcast, so stay tuned to Lolesports for updates to see where the NA LCS Finals will travel to next.

Spring Split match schedule

The full match schedule for the regular season is available on Lolesports on the Schedule tab. Keep in mind that we’ll continue to use flex scheduling for Weeks 5 through 9, so there may be changes in the order of matches. All teams will play once per day.

Spring Split Tickets

All 9 weeks of the regular season tickets will be available on Tuesday, December 19 at 11:00 AM PT on EventBrite. Tickets are $15 USD plus applicable fees and taxes. Please note the individual game day ticket URLs will not go live until tickets are on sale on Tuesday.

Academy League

More information about the upcoming Academy League will be coming later this week on Lolesports.

Don’t forget to save the date for the return of the NA LCS on January 20 at 2:00 PM PT with the opening game of TSM vs. Team Liquid.

Chris “Grza” Greeley is one of our League Operations Leads. He leads a team focused on supporting the operations of NA LCS. He is not the former congressional representative from Maine, but he is an ex(ish)-lawyer from New York City. He channeled years of raiding on his Resto Druid into life in the bottom lane dropping wards and shooting glitterlances. You can find him on Twitter as @IAmGrza.

60 Comments

III BAKURYU III Dec 18, 20178 votes

TSM wins NA G2 wins EU EDG wins LPL SKT wins LCK FW wins LMS ....................... SKT wins MSI

The next 4-5 months in a nutshell

GeminiRuneDec 18, 20175 votes

Unless some freak incident of circumstance happens again - and I'm all for Afreeca moments - yeah this script forever writes itself.

III BAKURYU III Dec 19, 20173 votes

We could see Afreeca(Rox 3.0) beat SKT but I wouldn't count on it within the LCK. Well, not until the Summer Split where SKT tends to fumble in the LCK by an "up and coming" team, only for that team to get eliminated within the second round of Worlds.

In short TSM, SKT, EDG, FW, G2 are most likely the winners of the mean nothing regular split winners.
C9, SKT, RNG, AHQ, FNC will most likely be the winners against their counterparts at Worlds.

SpooDec 19, 20175 votes

Think you mean Team Liquid wins NA this year.. Their roster alone!

III BAKURYU III Dec 19, 20172 votes

[deleted]

Buento BoxDec 20, 20172 votes

remember the team that was SUPER stacked in 2k16? i think they were called IMT and NEVER WON NA. don't count TSM CLG C9 out unless they dont make finals

III BAKURYU III Dec 20, 20172 votes

I'm not counting TSM out since I have them as #1 in my predictions. TSM was SUPER STACKED in 2k16 and they did win NA in the Summer Split.

CöupDec 24, 20171 votes

Olleh has had success in every region he has played in. He finds most success with engage/ pick supports.

III BAKURYU III Dec 24, 20171 votes

He also has a history and often criticised for being unprofessional and having a bad work ethic to boot. Very thin champion pool is the only thing about Olleh(in game) that I worry about. If teams ban Morg and Lulu but not play such champions themselves then I see Olleh being the original Adrian before he was Adrian himself with his 1 dimensional AP support champions and with such meta changing from tank top to more AD bruiser is another thing that scares me about Olleh and TL. However, things should be ok.......

Buento BoxDec 20, 20173 votes

no. ssg wins lck

III BAKURYU III Dec 20, 20172 votes

Nah, they'll probably get eliminated in the second round by the team that meets SKT in the Finals, before potentially losing to SKT themselves.

SuperNaClDec 22, 20172 votes

Looking at Fnatic's roster, how are you 100% sure G2 wins again? I'd say maybe 55-45 in favor of G2, but EU is by no means locked. And I'd say SSG can still beat SKT given their World Champion status.

III BAKURYU III Dec 22, 20171 votes

It's more tongue-and-cheek than anything dude. Kinda a pun on the same ol' same ol' that the LCS/LCK/LPL etc has been for the past 2-3 years. With G2 winning the last 4 Eu Championships in a row, TSM winning 3 in a row and making it to 10 straight NA Finals, SKT being dominate during the Spring compared to the Summer.

CöupDec 24, 20171 votes

I'm going to dispute pretty much every region but lck, na.

I'm going with RNG. Better off season moves. Uzi uses the momentum from all star to finally capture the domestic crown. Not to mention karsa.

Ahq in the lms. Mostly due to the aforementioned karsa and Westdoor stepping down as mid... finally. Although jteam/ HK e-sports are dark horses.

In the eu I feel this is the most wide open it's been since g2 stole the show in 2016. They lose it now. Jankos isn't enough. I'm giving the edge to fnc. Don't be surprised by s04 showing up big.

Those are my thoughts.

III BAKURYU III Dec 24, 20171 votes

Solid predictions and while mine was really just frustration on how each year/split seems to be the same thing over and over I too agree on a few things with you.

LMS

With Karsa leaving FW, Steak leaving to coach another team as well as NL being replaced for Betty a year ago, I think FW are close to done at being #1. The only problem is FW's competition seems to become weaker at the moment with Karsa not joining another LMS team and Westdoor most likely retiring and while his counterpart is good(Chawy) he seems to never really deliver when it counts.
I still gotta stay with Flash Wolves winning the LMS yet again most likely.

LPL

The thing about RNG that I'm annoyed about is Firefox the coach for RNG seems to have taken the backseat to Heart a former SSB player and from his compared to Firefox's coach record as really been horrible. Heart has literally destroyed the once Worlds 2015 LGD team that was coached I believe by Firefox and turned it into a joke in the LPL. So replace a guy that took not only 1 team to Worlds but two that both really had no real business being at such tournament(LGD 2015 and IMay 2016) and replace him with Heart instead.
Another thing is RNG replacing MLXG with Karsa really makes no sense as MLXG is a better jungler than Karsa in my opinion.

Will RNG win the LPL? Not 100% sure honestly but if I had to say I would have to go with one of these three instead of RNG( Bilibili Gaming, Edward Gaming, and Team World Elite)
Edward Gaming will most likely not figure it's roster in time and so won't win LPL 2018 Spring with Ray joining from C9 and what Clearlove might do(retire or not) as well as Iboy looking to be replaced.
I gotta go with the hot hand to win the LPL and that's Team World Elite

EU

Oh god, I have no idea mainly because more than 60% of the players are either rookies, no-names or just lacking that "IT" factor to their resume.
Team So4 has Nukeduck and with him, you can kiss any chance at winning EU goodbye considering he hasn't been relevant since 2012 it seems. Good group with talent but the team could implode as Nukeduck has an attitude of sorts and with SO4's coach being Krepo there could be fireworks if Nukeduck or anyone/fans etc mention Krepo's recent history. Point is this team "could" be decent.

To me, EU will come down to four teams(Fnatic, G2, Splyce and a darkhorse Roccat to win the 2018 Spring Split) With Splyce accruing Nisqy from team NV, I think he will lead Splyce to the Eu Finals against........ G2 Esports and the winner will be Splyce Gaming

NA

1...2...3...4..5...6...7...8...9...10......Why stop there...11 straight NA Finals for Team Solomid because why not!
The biggest problem with TSM is honestly Bjergsen but with the recent coaching change from Parth to Ssong who coached Rox Tigers but was also a player(mid) back in the day(Najin Sword) he could potentially teach Bjergsen on how to actually win outside of NA but it will have to start with NA first. TSM will most likely face Ssong's old teammate from their Najin Sword days and that's Team Liquid's coach Cain who back in the day supported Pray(Longzhu adc). Winner of North America Team Liquid

TrampledByWeedJan 14, 20181 votes

setting NA back 2 hours is beyond dumb as fuck. now games wont get over until 10 or later depending on game length. if anything it should be moved up to 2 hours. fuck EU fans that want to watch NA... really we had two separate streams for NA teams last year but we have to worry about EU fans not being able to watch NA is beyond ridiculous.

III BAKURYU III Jan 14, 20181 votes

That was something that I touched on and I got more than an earful from everyone on these boards about having NA/EU 2 separate streams if such games intersect with one another. As you pointed out I too don't understand why NA/EU fans has to wait for the other region to finish up with their games before the start of another REGION broadcast to begin. It makes 0 sense logically.
Or better yet why not have EU play on two separate days and vice versa for NA?

HZBFeb 27, 20181 votes

lol when you go for the safe picks and get them all wrong. wanna reroll?

III BAKURYU III Feb 28, 20182 votes

Yeah, I'm bad at predicting stuff...........you could say I'm "Breaking Bad" eh

HZBMar 7, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=III BAKURYU III ,realm=NA,application-id=9hBQwnEU,discussion-id=Gk5aEBAd,comment-id=000200060000,timestamp=2018-02-28T04:39:13.286+0000)

Yeah, I'm bad at predicting stuff...........you could say I'm "Breaking Bad" eh

Ravens6969Dec 19, 20178 votes

You absolutely ignored the massive backlash to the best of 1 format. It weakens NA as a region and that should be fairly obvious. NA made massive strides when we switched to bo3 and in one colossal f*#@ up you decide to go back. on the original announcement there are over 500 complaints and out right rage. Your explanation for bo1....so casual fans can enjoy. CASUAL FANS do not enjoy the pro scene like the true fans do. which you have thrown under the bus to what...please a group that likely doesn't follow the pro scene anyways. So....you basically hurt the league. you kicked out immortals...the second place team and worlds contender....you hit the true fans. you hurt NA as a region by making bo1 the new format. This post was your chance to go....ok we were stupid. we didn't realize how strongly the fans felt about the bo1 vs bo3 issue. so we will continue with bo3 as we want NA to be strong. IF YOU WANT MORE FANS NA HAS TO FREAKING WIN! We need a win and we won't get it by doing bo1 crap. Bo1 does not prove who the best team is. it also takes away from pro matches. every match a player can get better. you have removed a 1/3 of a pro players experience now. fantastic. I hope after this season you see the error in your ways and return to bo3.

EXE ZylandisDec 19, 20174 votes

lmao. First of all, name an international competition that uses bo3... Just because other regions use bo3 doesn't mean that we have to. NA's best performance at worlds in the last couple years was 2014 where we had 2 quarterfinals teams, NA used bo1 format back then, therefore bo1 is the better format no? Jokes aside, the format doesn't matter. I will agree that both systems have their ups and downs, but saying that getting rid of bo3 will make NA a worse region isn't true in the slightest.

ReaxetionDec 19, 20173 votes

I'm going to say here what I said when they made the announcement:

1 to 2 more games on stage has a VERY minimal impact on the competitiveness of the teams on an international level. LCK does BO1's. Yet they dominate. Its all about how you practice and prepare. In the original announcement they said something along the lines of ~"to compensate we will be working with each team to help them improve and get the most out of their practice time." <-THIS is the most important thing to international competition. Knowing how to practice and prepare. Having the right mentality. If Rito follows through with this, in the next 1-2 years we could have some VERY strong teams.

As for "true fans" I have been watching worlds since season 2 and the LCS since season 3. I have been a fan, and watch as many games as I can, as well as follow both the NA LCS and EU LCS rather closely so I can always know whats on the up and up. That being said, I have 3 to 4 teams that I actively like and want to watch. I also have a kid, a full time job, a wife, and a really busy life. I can't commit to watching 3-4 BO3s every weekend. So I often tune in for one series and just look up who won the others. Not nearly as fun as experiencing them live. Now with only BO1, I can watch all the games! You may call me "casual" because I have important stuff that needs to be done. But I am a true fan who sports the merch and always knows what happened in all the games. I just am not in highschool/college any more. shrug I like this change, so please don't speak for "true fans" when you don't represent us all.

SuperNaClDec 22, 20175 votes

Again, fact check. LCK does Bo3s.

Swordngun2Dec 19, 20175 votes

I see even after you were lambasted for your decision to go back to Bo1's you aren't backing down. I really hope you know what you're doing. Even though you deny it, I felt like Bo3's were making the pro scene more and more competitive across pretty much every region.

I honestly think that with Bo1 we're back in for more China Dominance, and Korea Godliness. We're going to be back to Season 3 and 4 status, which was pretty boring. And if the League gets less competitive overall, I foresee your viewership numbers taking a pretty significant hit this year.

ReaxetionDec 19, 20173 votes

I'm going to say here what I said when they made the announcement:

I say lets wait and see before we overreact and get bummed out.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

SuperNaClDec 22, 20173 votes

Fact check: LCK does Bo3s not Bo1s.

Dark MatterDec 18, 20174 votes

Hopefully the bo1 gets us back to our old 300k plus viewership on regular season matches. China carries LoL's net viewership, but it does carry it into first place. We should be head and shoulders above other games in all regions, not just a few.

AllyndusDec 18, 20173 votes

Please bring LCS Finals to Chicago! 10 ping Solo queue + delicious food in a fun city.

ReaxetionDec 19, 20172 votes

Or to Kansas City, the closest major city to the center of the country. Fair for everyone. Plus its only 20 ping here on Fiber networks.

SuperNaClDec 22, 20171 votes

Or maybe to Houston, TX? You know, the only one of the top 4 most populous cities in the US to not host Worlds in 2016? Seriously?

GhostOfTsushimaDec 22, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Please bring LCS Finals to Chicago! 10 ping Solo queue + delicious food in a fun city.

Take LCS Final to Korea, 2 ping better than 10 ping

King KeragJan 2, 20181 votes

Bring it to SLC!

Womp123Dec 31, 20173 votes

I don't mind Zven and Mithy as TSM's bot lane but I sure will miss Biofrost :[...felt like he was one of the most consistent players on TSM. He will be missed.

PsycloneJokerDec 19, 20172 votes

So when are you guys gonna announce the loot drops we have a chance of getting for watching LCS streams? [slayer-jinx-wink]

ReaxetionDec 19, 20171 votes

Wat? Is this a kappa or did I miss something?

SuperNaClDec 22, 20172 votes

Reference to I believe CSGO doing something like this.

III BAKURYU III Dec 19, 20172 votes

BO3 and BO1 both have their pros and cons but I too am leaning on Best of 1 more so than BO3 because it makes teams scout, practice and overall, prepare harder than before when it's just 1 and done instead of having 2 chances before losing, now it's 1. I look at it like a comparison between NFL(Best of 1) and the NBA(Best of 3) when it comes to teams/players having to study their opponents it's no secret that the NFL has that head and shoulders over the NBA where realistically it's close to impossible to scout and practice before facing 5-6 teams within a 7 day week, compared to 1(NFL) 2(LCS) teams per week to focus all your energy on.

In short, I think going back to best of 1 does things that fans aren't noticing and one of them is fatigue in which playing 36 - 54 games in the regular split same as the summer split, playoffs, MSI, Rift Rivals, Worlds it's too much and becoming a bit saturated in my opinion. Standing won't be confusing to understand( when people couldn't understand why RNG advanced at Worlds and not TSM when both were 3-3 but RNG 2-0'd TSM I doubt they will understand when teams are identical in record but not overall records.

2015 Spring Split Immortals vs Renegades......... best of 3 who's winning? It's predictable and what's something that we tell ourselves that always tends to happen especially at Worlds " The better teams will always win in Best of" so who would watch one of the better teams vs a garbage team that everyone expects to lose anyways? Don't give me "I watch them" cause the lower half teams in NA 2015-2017 had 0 views and attention. Now, imagine an 8-3 TSM vs 5-6 10th place team( on paper it's already sounding to be a decent game within best of 1)

Overall, I think going back to best of one's isn't a bad idea, is it 10/10 no but I think at this point it's better.

YoshtradomusDec 20, 20172 votes

What I'd like to see is a 2 game series between each team every week and each game effects that standings. So say C9 and CLG play and they each take 1 game, they both would be 1-1. If C9 takes them both, they're 2-0 and CLG 0-2 or vice versa. I think this is the best compromise of content and quality.

AriCeiDec 20, 20172 votes

The schedule is pretty B.S.. if you want to be a serious sport, make it so real people can watch games, like NHL etc. Every single team playing matches like 2 days a week? It's like 7 hours of games a day. 1 match a day all week would probably be easier to get interested in. VoDs aren't always the same experience

King KeragJan 2, 20182 votes

Agreed. I can't just sit and watch all the games all day every Sat and Sun.. I have to go back and watch them throughout the week but there are score spoilers everywhere so I fast forward matches pretty often and just watch the highlights... If you want this to be a habit for viewers then make it shorter times on more days... maybe a few games every day.. IDK but throwing 7 hours of games in is too much for anyone with a family or plans to go do anything on a Sat or Sun. The all day thing plays more towards a children audience who have nothing else to do. But if you want a more mature audience who might want to invest money into supporting their favorite teams then you will have to rethink your all day Sat Sun schedules.

RageExtremeJan 3, 20181 votes

You ever try watching EVERY professional sports game in a given week? Just like other sports, they anticipate that people will watch the teams they care about and not necessarily all of the games. For reference, a single game of NFL football takes ~3 hours from kickoff to conclusion, yet each LCS game takes ~40 minutes. So, if you are a fan of two teams, and they don't have a single overlapping game, then you have about 1 NFL games worth of watch time over 2 days to watch all 4 games (and on weeks where they play against each other in one of those games you have even less).

III BAKURYU III Dec 21, 20171 votes

1.TEAM SOLOMID 14-4 Hauntzer 49-45-120 MikeYeung 38-41-135 Bjergsen 93-44-101 Zven 72-34-115 Mithy 16-54-193

2.COUNTER LOGIC GAMING 12-6 Darshan 70-55-110 Reignover 45-51-131 Huhi 76-67-127 Stixxay 94-50-105 Biofrost 11-53-189

3.TEAM LIQUID 11-7 Impact 44-38-128 Xmithie 34-51-150 Pobelter 73-41-115 Doublelift 99-26-96 Olleh 8-49-185

4.CLUTCH GAMING 11-7 Solo 43-59-107 Lira 47-59-108 Febiven 71-37-97 Apollo 56-46-106 Hakuho 18-41-149

5.ECHO FOX 10-6 Huni 63-57-117 Dardoch 42-38-163 Fenix 75-39-106 Altec 82-35-98 Adrian 10-41-195

6.CLOUD 9 9-9 Licorice 25-59-131 Svenskeren 38-51-154 Jensen 94-44-82 Sneaky 90-37-109 Smoothie 23-54-170

7.100 THIEVES 7-11 Ssumday 46-45-116 Meteos 37-60-131 Ryu 64-38-96 Cody Sun 77-39-93 Aphromoo 13-52-153

8.GOLDEN GUARDIANS 5-13 Lourlo 43-71-76 Contractz 37-70-92 Hai 56-51-81 Deftly 54-46-73 Matt 9-81-121

9.OPTIC GAMING 5-13 Zig 48-63-140 Akaadian 46-49-141 PowerofEvil 67-51-116 Arrow 89-54-96 Lemonation 6-61-188

10.FLYQUEST 4-14 Flame 43-55-79 Anda 38-50-95 Fly 54-57-86 Wildturtle 67-41-68 Stunt 7-52-101

BigDaddyDwarfJan 14, 20181 votes

My only problem with this is that by the end of the season it's not gonna be Golden Guardians Matt, It's gonna be Golden Guardians Xpecial...... Well, not my only problem, but the only one i care to say.

III BAKURYU III Jan 14, 20181 votes

Xpecial has been producing some great games and stats to go along such games, while Matt has been that guy that dies constantly throughout his career.

Matt has been in some of the shortest games within TL around that 29-30 min mark while Xpecial has been in some of the longer games and has some top 20 longest games to show for it(Curse 2014) and yet, Matt is head n shoulders ahead of Xpecail in deaths as well as having the same average amount of kills even with better and more talented ADC's + shorter games.

BigDaddyDwarfJan 14, 20181 votes

So, in short, you're agreeing that Xpecial is a better Supp?