Challenger Series Update

TLDR:

• DDoS attacks have been an issue this season. As such, we’re focused on enhancing our existing technical support for Challenger teams to make sure that the only thing that decides a match is skill.
• We are currently discussing multiple format changes for 2015 including a round-robin style season similar to the LCS that will allow the best teams to rise to the top.
• We are considering a new rule around auto-promotion and auto-relegation, which would mean the LCS 10th place team would automatically go to Challenger and Challenger Series champion would automatically move into the LCS after each split.
• We are giving Challenger Series its own day of the week and updating ownership rules to restrict ownership to two teams - one in Challenger and one in the LCS.

Hey, it’s Nick Allen, League Operations Manager, returning with another update from the esports team. Giving insights into our decision-making process for competitive League of Legends is an important goal for us. Lately, we’ve seen a lot of questions from the community on how we plan to evolve the Challenger scene. In that spirit, I’d like to offer some more details for the Challenger Series next season. Our goals with the Challenger Series are to:

• Develop the sustainability and consistency of the Challenger scene
• Empower and prepare the next generation of teams for the LCS
• Create a clear path to LCS for amateurs and former pro players
• Share the stories of the Challenger teams

It’s been a great seeing the opportunities that the Challenger Series has provided teams to transition from the amateur scene to playing League of Legends as their full-time profession in the LCS, as well as former pros return with new teams to fight their way back into the LCS. Several successful Challenger Series teams and players made waves in the LCS such as LMQ, who went from dominating the NA Challenger Series to representing North America at Worlds. Some Challenger players such as Woolite, Airwaks, and Kez even leveraged the Challenger scene as a launching point to earn starting roles in the LCS. Challenger Teams are even shaking up the LCS with the additions of former Challenger teams, Unicorns of Love and Team 8 into next season.

2015 Considerations

Now that I’ve addressed some of the things that we did in 2014, I wanted to share some of the things that we’re seriously considering for 2015. Auto-Promotion & Auto-Relegation To kick things off, we're considering implementing an auto-promotion process, whereby the team that wins the Challenger Series automatically qualifies for the LCS after each split. On the flip side, the team that places 10th at the end of each split would be auto-relegated into Challenger. There’s a couple of reasons that we’re considering this idea. First, auto-promotion would make winning the Challenger Series more valuable and exciting and ensuring that we see new blood in the LCS. Second, it makes the bottom of LCS more competitive by adding weight to hovering around the bottom ranks of the LCS. This would mean that a team's fate is automatically determined rather than having a chance to fight for a spot like we have currently with the Promotion Tournament. New Format We are considering changing the Challenger Series format to look more like a smaller LCS: a round-robin style tournament taking place over over several weeks. Similar to the LCS, this would give teams the opportunity to play consistent matchups over a clearly-defined schedule. This would increase team’s visibility and provide consistency to drive team rivalries and give players a chance to get to know the teams better from week to week. Importantly, the round-robin format improves the current structure because it better prepares the next generation of teams for the LCS by mimicking the pro league's schedule.We do plan to continue to give plenty of teams the chance to qualify through the Play-In stage but the core format will probably look more like the LCS.

Confirmed Changes for 2015

Here’s a few things that we’re definitely putting into place for next year. Dedicated Game Days To ensure the Challenger Series is able to continue to thrive, we’re dedicating a separate day of the week to Challenger. This allows us to free it from the time constraints of the LCS, improving the schedule for players and viewers alike. It also gives us the opportunity to better serve the Challenger Series audience by presenting a more focused broadcast experience. We believe that Challenger deserves to stand on it’s own, and we’re confident that it will prove strong enough to support its own broadcast to do so. DDoS Prevention One issue that we’ve seen negatively impact the Challenger Series is DDoS attacks. We’ve had success working with several teams on preventing attacks by properly securing their player home connections prior to their matches. Along with preventative measures detailed in our DDoS Prevention Guide, we host pre-match technical check-ins and “tech office hours” to assist teams with DDoS protection, proper Tournament Realm installation, and miscellaneous tech support for any emergent problems. We’ll continue to ramp up our ongoing efforts to provide technical support to the teams, including proactive DDoS protection audits. One Team Ownership Currently, organizations or individuals can own up to two Challenger teams in addition to an LCS team. For next season, Challenger Series team ownership will be restricted to a single organization or owner as well as an LCS Team. If a Challenger Team plays into the LCS though, they would need to change ownership if the owner already owns an existing LCS team. We’re updating these ownership policies to move away from a two team ownership in a League format to avoid potential issues around soft play, conflicts of interest, and loopholes that could potentially allow an organization to remain in the LCS despite relegation. We’re looking to avoids scenarios like two Challenger teams and their parent LCS team ending up in the same Promotion Tournament, creating a serious conflict of interest.

Wrap Up

Let us know what you want to see in a new Challenger format and if you think auto-promotion and auto-relegation rule should be part of the 2015 season. We hope that this post helped give you a some insight into our thinking on the future of the Challenger Series. With all the successful teams and players that have emerged from the Challenger Series, we can’t wait to see what happens next especially at the Expansion Tournament.