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Championship Points Unlocked and More: 2015 LCS Changes

Riot·1/7/2015, 7:36:45 PM·1 votes·167,883 views

TL;DR

  • The 10th place LCS team will automatically be moved to the Challenger Series for the next split. The 1st place Challenger team will automatically earn a spot in the LCS.
  • LCS teams will receive championship points based on their performance in the LCS playoffs each split. The points will be used to determine seeding for the World Championship and Regional Qualifiers for North America and Europe.
  • The winner of the Summer Split and the team with the most championship points throughout the season will both qualify for Worlds for their respective region. The NA and EU Regional Qualifiers will determine the final seeds for Worlds.

Increasing the LCS to 10 teams and Head Coaches becoming a part of the Pick/Ban phase are just a couple of the changes that we have in store for next season. Below are some of the additional changes that we’re making to create a more entertaining, consistent 2015 season.

Format

Regular Season

In the 2015 season, we’ll be revising the regular season schedule to make it more consistent and facilitate more exciting, diverse matchups for players and fans. Below are some of the format changes for the upcoming regular season and how it stacks up against last season:

  • More matches per day: each team will continue to play once a day, so the increase to ten teams means five matches per day compared to four during the 2014 season
  • Each game will matter more: teams will only face each other twice per split rather than four times for a total of 18 games, down from 28 last year
  • Shorter regular season: 2015 regular season splits will be nine weeks with no Super Weeks instead of 11 weeks in 2014

Here’s how the regular season results will affect teams at all positions:

  • 1st place and 2nd place will secure first round byes in the playoffs
  • 4th place will play 5th and 3rd place will play 6th in the playoff quarterfinals
  • 7th place re-qualifies for LCS next split and will not participate in playoffs
  • 8th and 9th place LCS teams will play against the 2nd and 3rd place CS teams for a spot in the LCS at the Promotion Tournament. The 8th place LCS team will get their choice of CS opponent.
  • 10th place will automatically be relegated to the Challenger Series and the 1st place Challenger team automatically qualify to the LCS

The full Spring Split schedule and tickets for the beginning of the regular season are now available.

Playoffs

The NA and EU LCS Playoffs will take place over a three week period with each round of matches (Quarters, Semis, and Final) taking place on separate weekends. All playoff matches will be Best of 5s (Bo5). The NA and EU Spring Split Playoffs will take place over the following weekends:

  • NA and EU Spring Playoffs, Quarters: April 4-5
  • NA and EU Spring Playoffs, Semis: April 11-12
  • NA and EU Spring Playoffs, 3rd and Final: April 18-19

Qualifying for Worlds

Championship Points

We’re introducing Championship Points (otherwise known to some as circuit points) for the 2015 LCS Season. As we mentioned in August , we wanted to introduce a point system that ensures teams always play their best and allows for better alignment with other international Leagues.

Teams will receive championship points that help them qualify for Worlds based on their performance in the LCS playoffs each split. The teams who will represent North America and Europe at the 2015 World Championship will be determined by championship points and performance in the Summer Split.

Here’s how an LCS team qualifies for Worlds:

  • 1st place team of the Summer Split will automatically qualify (AQ) for Worlds as the first seed from that region.
  • The team that has accrued the most championship points throughout the season will also qualify for Worlds as the second seed.
  • In the event that multiple teams are tied in the standings at the conclusion of the Summer Split, then the team that gained the most points in the Summer Split will be considered the holder of the tiebreaker.
  • The final spot for Worlds will be determined at the NA and EU Regional Qualifiers, the winners of which will be the third seeds of their respective regions.

Points will be awarded in the following way:

Place

Spring Split

Summer Split

1st

90

AQ

2nd

70

90

3rd

50

70

4th

30

40

5th-6th

10

20

7th-10th

0

0

NA and EU Regional Qualifiers

The Regional Qualifiers will determine the third and final seed for Worlds for North America and Europe. The tournament will be a single elimination, knockout bracket with Bo5 matches among the four highest championship point-holders not already qualified for the World Championship. We chose a king-of-the-hill format to reward strong play throughout the year and give these teams a last chance at qualifying for Worlds.

Here’s a breakdown of the bracket: 

Broadcast and Coverage

The regular season of the EU LCS will stay on Thursdays and Fridays at 9:00am PST/18:00 CET while NA LCS will be on Saturdays and Sundays will be NA LCS at 12:00pm PST/ 21:00 CET.

What’s Next?

Stay tuned for more information on our international events and 2015 World Championship.

Don't forget to catch all the action of the LCS starting on January 22 here on Lolesports.com

106 Comments

PaulRemyBacardi1/7/2015, 9:05:02 PM26 votes

This is sort of a mix of prior tournaments (LCS+OGN etc.) and a newer system. I like it.

It's similar to football where the bottom 3 teams (Premier League) are automatically relegated whereas only 1 will be automatically relegated and the other 2 will have to fight to stay.

I like this.

Lovercake1/7/2015, 9:17:50 PM8 votes

I like the idea of the championship points to make consistency and the spring split more important but it still feels like it's mostly about the summer split, which is a shame in my eyes. Especially because the best you get out of winning spring is the points and being able to participate in a worse version of All-Stars, yeah, i said it!

And fewer overall games, i think, haven't calculated it, but seems like fewers matches.. How could you! D:

CitizenofBangkok1/7/2015, 11:38:24 PM8 votes

What about Fantasy League? Is that coming back?

PoIis1/8/2015, 10:09:57 PM8 votes

I'd like to point out that there now exists a hypothetical situation where a team wins the spring split, then gets 10th place in the summer split and gets relegated.

That team is still qualified for the Regional Qualifier Tournament and is still eligible to go to (and hypothetically win) worlds.

We can potentially have an NACS team at worlds.

CWILLL1/8/2015, 8:51:52 AM7 votes

10 LESS GAMES? I thought with the addition of two new spots there would be 10 MORE games. I really REALLY don't like this at all.. LCS is only on weekends and for a couple months each split. I understand that it's not as big as a sport like hockey but PLS Riot can you at least give us the 28 games and not take away what few games I get to look forward to every week? I love watching the LCS!!

hotarse1/9/2015, 1:01:28 AM6 votes

League of Shitends 2019. Nazi moderators 2019. Fuck off! Ban me already fuckers.

OnlyTeemo691/8/2015, 5:09:22 PM6 votes

The only bad part of this new format that I see is the lowering of games in a split from 28 to 18, and how that will affect the Western scene's ability to be competitive with the East. Already in past seasons the NA and EU LCS have played considerably less competitive matches than the other two major regions (sorry SEA, but you are bad.) Now the gap is going to be even larger. Consider the new system for Korea where each team plays a double round robin, just like the LCS, but each matchup is A BEST OF THREE. That means that at bear minimum each team will play a total of 28 competitive intraleague games, and that's only if a team were to 2-0, or get 0-2'd in every match they played. More than likely in a professional league as competitive as Korea's, a team will be taken to a third game every now and again, and just for the sake of argument, if a single Korean team got taken to a third game in all 14 matches they played in their spring split they would have played 42 competitive games, nearly 2.5x the number played by LCS teams. I'm thrilled by the new format for the most part, the fact that the spring split carries weight now, and that the regional qualifiers are designed to make sure that every Western team invited to worlds will have the ability to make a mark on international stage is well done, with a few kinks here and there. But in a new season where the Western world has recently shown that it is slowly rising to the level of Eastern competitive play, and both Korea and China have been experiencing extensive roster overhauls which they will have to adapt to, I think it is a MASSIVE gaffe by Riot and a huge shot to our ability to continue to improve our international results to lower the amount of games played each split. The new system would be much better if each team continued to play the others 4 times for a total of 36 games, which would put us much closer to being on par with the Eastern scene in terms of how much competitive experience our LCS players gain and can learn from each split. BAYLIFE FOREVER! That is all.

Wintershere1/10/2015, 1:26:16 AM5 votes

Less games doesn't really make any sense to me. How will reducing the number of games make the sport more popular. One of the reason's people prefer watching LOL over DOTA is the structure of the season and number of games. This isn't like college football where there is a risk of injury. Most of the competitors play the game non-stop anyway. If anything the increase in the number of teams should result in more games to give the teams enough games to adjust to each other and prove who is the best team rather than who is the best group of individuals.

Chip Dip Bip1/9/2015, 6:10:04 AM5 votes

I like the changes except that teams play less games..... I want more LCS!!!

MOTDF1/8/2015, 12:51:20 PM5 votes

Really not sure I like no super weeks or the reduced number of games played. Don't get me wrong I understand why but i really dont like it.

Aerilux1/7/2015, 10:57:29 PM5 votes

I love the new system but the only problem I have is that they should have had each team face each other 3 times so a clear tie breaker could be established... plus I want to watch more games :/

MyPinky131/8/2015, 8:15:35 AM4 votes

in a way I don't like these changes atleast to the amount of game played in the splits. I live being able to watch 28 games, and now we are loosing a 3rd of those games? alright well I hope this means that the pro are able to play at there full lvls instead of getting "tired out".

wavy danny1/8/2015, 3:13:10 AM3 votes

What i dont like is the 10th place AUTOMATICALLY goes to CS, while 1st place in CS goes to LCS, maybe one is better then the other, then should play games to decide that.

Aerilux1/8/2015, 10:52:22 PM3 votes

Should have been 27 games, not 18. smh....

AnimuKaren1/8/2015, 12:40:53 AM3 votes

This is pretty cool. Makes each match in the playoff more interesting. summoner 31

SpakyPD1/8/2015, 2:28:12 AM2 votes

Change Summer Split point totals to 95, 74, 43, 22 and avoid any ties while getting the intended results.

Robb1/7/2015, 11:24:19 PM2 votes

The only way a team joining in the Summer split can make it to worlds is by winning the Split. The points seem a little off with only 2 period to earn points. I guess it makes sense to prevent teams from joining to Coke series in the spring just for Worlds in the summer, but isn't that what LMQ did?

I might be missing something here, but also the fact if you place 5th or 6th in the spring split, your points are so low that you'd have to place 2nd or 3rd to even be in the points qualifier race.

It makes sense I guess.

matrinox1/9/2015, 6:44:23 AM2 votes

Congrats Riot, this is seriously one of the best systems I've seen in a while. Maybe it's that new e-sports guy you hired but ever since the world tournament, this is the next great announcement. However, I still think the league system isn't that great. Sure, it's easier to get into vs. a tournament storyline but most of your fans are hardcore fans anyways, why not do best-of-2's or best-of-3's. Also gives teams more pay-off for research. Also bye's in tournaments means the lower teams have an easier time to face 1st and 2nd. 3rd playing 6th is most swingy than 1st playing 6th. It just means that lower level teams have an easier chance of placing higher than they should And lastly, the relegation. Ideally, I'd like to see 8th-10th LCS play a round robin with 1st-3rd CS with a double-elimination best-of-5 bracket. Higher chance of seeing the best 3 take the last 3 spots. If CS is weak, then technically the 10th best team in NA/EU could end up in challenger and that could ruin a team that may have just gotten it together in the last few weeks but not enough to turn it around. And now they will never go to worlds even if they improved.

But I get that makes it way longer so I propose a solution: Let the top 2 teams in CS play in the regional playoffs. Then LCS teams that got relegated get one more chance to prove in the summer, but they would have very fierce competition.

Keskintilki1/7/2015, 9:58:06 PM2 votes

Although a lot of these are welcome changes, I still don't like the stubbornness that Riot has displayed with the way teams qualify for worlds.

The point system is pretty much arbitrary when there is a Auto qualifier at the end of summer split, basically nothing has changed as far as qualification for worlds go. Why even pretend to have a point system when it will be useless, It will pretty much basically be whatever placement you receive during summer split determines whether or not you get to go to worlds, just as it has always been. (with the exception of an actual mini tournament to determine who qualifies as second seed of-course)

This "point system" literally means nothing, I'm not sure who thought it was great, but the fact that there is an auto qualifier makes the points pretty pointless.

If the AQ was removed then we would start having a conversation about splits mattering.

Xaklys1/8/2015, 4:21:56 AM2 votes

I'm kind of curious how it works with new teams that are just entering the LCS during the Summer, like with LMQ in s4 and C9 in s3. Do they just start at a disadvantage because they came in halfway through?

DADDY SCHMELTZ1/8/2015, 3:04:42 AM2 votes

Only problem i have is if a team get promoted to lcs after the spring split they have a harder chance to make it to worlds because they will most likely not have the most points so they only have 2 spots to go for instead of 3

TheTrumpCard1/8/2015, 9:42:23 PM2 votes

Guys... we have a gauntlet...

Anakin The Weird4/22/2016, 2:58:57 PM1 votes

Uhhhhh.... wut?