Welcome to the 2015 Spring Expansion Tournament!

League of Legends esports is growing. The upcoming 2015 Spring Expansion Tournament is a special one-time competition that will allow both the NA and EU LCS to expand from 8 to 10 teams this season. Read on to learn everything you need to know about the event.

What Is The Expansion Tournament?

The 2015 Spring Expansion Tournament will determine which teams will fill the two new LCS spots in NA and EU. The top two teams to emerge from the tournament in NA and EU will secure an LCS spot in their region.

Who Will Be Competing in the Expansion Tournament?

The Expansion Tournament will feature a mix of teams drawn from the Promotion Tournament, Challenger Series Playoffs, and Ranked 5s ladder. The 14 participants in the NA Expansion Tournament are:

• compLexity Black
• Curse Academy
• Team Coast
• Enemy Esports
• Team Fusion
• Team LoLPRO
• compLexity White
• Zenith eSports
• Final Five
• Monstar Kittenz
• Fission Esports
• Team Confusion Esports
• Noble Truth
• Call Gaming Team

The 14 participants in the EU Expansion Tournament are:

• Millenium
• H2K
• Gamers2
• Reason Gaming
• SPARTA
• Tricked eSports
• Meloncats
• Ascension
• Giants
• Cyborg Factory
• n!faculty
• Different Dimension
• SK Gaming Prime
• Team Strix

What Is The Structure of the Expansion Tournament?

The first round of the 2015 Expansion Tournament will consist of a single-elimination bracket pitting 12 seeded qualifying teams against one another in one Best of 3 series. The teams were seeded through the Promotion Tournament (2 teams), Challenger Series Playoffs (3 teams), and Ranked 5s ladder (7 teams). See more on how the teams got seeded via this announcement. compLexity Black and Crs Academy, the two teams that prequalified into the Expansion Tournament after competing in the Promotion Tournament, will receive a first-round bye. The second round will consist of four single-elimination Best of 3 series between the six teams who advanced from Round 1 as well as compLexity Black and Crs Academy. Both the first and second round of the Expansion Tournament will be played on Patch 4.19. The four teams that advance through the second round will travel to ESL's studio to play live in a modified double-elimination bracket spanning three more rounds. The teams that are victorious in the Semifinals and Losers Finals will each directly earn a spot in the new 10-team LCS. We will have more information about which patch the final three rounds will be played on at a future date.

Will The Expansion Tournament Have New Rules?

The Expansion Tournament will have its own ruleset, distinct from that of the LCS. You can check out the full ruleset here. To get some deeper insight into how the Interregional Movement Policy and work eligibility rules apply to the Expansion Tournament, see this post. You can also read up on ownership and player-movement restrictions specific to this tournament here.

When Is The Expansion Tournament?

The Expansion Tournament will take place from November 15 - December 21. The first two rounds will be played online. An additional three rounds of competition will be played live from ESL’s studio in Burbank, CA for the NA Expansion games. The EU Expansion games will be held in Cologne, Germany, as part of IEM Cologne. Here is the full schedule for the Expansion Tournament:

• November 15-16: NA Expansion (Round 1, Online)
• November 22-23: NA Expansion (Round 2, Online), EU Expansion (Round 1, Online)
• November 29-30: EU Expansion (Round 2, Online)
• December 12-14: NA Live Expansion (Round 3, Live)
• December 18-21: EU Live Expansion (Round 3, Live)

How Can You Watch?

You can watch every game from the Expansion Tournament right here on Lolesports.com. The Expansion Tournament broadcast will begin at 11 AM PST each day. If you want to watch live, you can still buy tickets for IEM Cologne to catch both the EU Expansion Tournament and all of the event's other activities. Tickets for the NA Expansion Tournament, which will be held at the ESL Studios in Burbank, are also available. If you miss any of the action, you'll easily be able to catch everything via our spoiler-free VOD page.