2017 NA CS Spring Qualifiers

UPDATE: Due to player feedback, we've extended the registration deadline to December 8 at 3:00 PM PT. We will now release the final bracket on December 8 at 5:00 PM PT. Matches remain unchanged and will still occur on December 10-12. The article has been updated below to reflect these changes.

The battle to join the 2017 NA Challenger Series is on. Registration for the NA CS Spring Qualifier tournament begins today, and runs through December 8.

Format

Like previous qualifiers, the Spring Open Qualifier will consist of a single elimination, Best of 3 (Bo3) tournament. The top two teams will advance to the Qualifier Finals on December 14 against the 5th and 6th seeds from the 2016 NA CS Summer Split in Bo5 matches to claim spots in the 2017 NA CS Spring Split.

Sign-ups are open now, and will remain open until Thursday, December 8 at 3:00 PM PT. Gather your Diamond 3-or-above teammates and visit Battlegrounds to create your team. Once you’ve made your team, click on the NA CS logo and register your team for the qualifier tournament. The final bracket will be published on Thursday, December 8 at 5:00 PM PT.

Seeding

The seeding and format of the tournament remains unchanged from Summer. Here’s a quick rundown of how it works:

1. When a team signs up, we log each player’s current Solo/Duo Ranked tier.  Playing games after you join the tournament won’t affect your seeding.

2. A score is assigned to the teams based its five highest-rated players on the roster. Each Challenger player is worth 5, while each Diamond III is worth 1.

3. The top 8 teams become seeded, while the remaining teams remain unseeded.

4. The 8 seeded teams are randomly positioned on opposite ends of the bracket. This is the equivalent of where the 1st-8th ranked teams would be positioned in a standard seeded bracket.

5. The remaining teams are randomly distributed across the rest of the bracket.

A few notes on how the bracket works:

This strictly weights tiers, so Diamond I 99 LP will be rated the same as Diamond I 0 LP.

If less than 16 teams sign up, we’ll seed 4 teams instead of 8.

If there’s a tie for the last spot, the team with the highest individual players takes the spot, so a team with 2 Challenger players would be rated above a tied team with 1 Challenger player.

Fan Experience

Like last year, you can follow the Open Qualifier Bracket and view detailed Match History on Battlegrounds. While we won’t be streaming the games, all matches are held on the live server and are free to be spectated or streamed by anyone. We’ll be posting VODs of the Qualifier Finals on the lolesports YouTube channel as well as announcing the winners on lolesports.com following the conclusion of the tournament. Keep your eye on lolesports.com in the new year for more information about the 2017 Challenger Series.