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The current LCS format, where teams can change every split, doesn't facilitate team loyalty

SixSixTrample·8/7/2014, 12:36:22 PM·5 votes·1,374 views

I'm wondering if anything is going to change for LCS Season 3(Season 5). Right now, with the way it's set up any team could potentially not be back in the LCS for the next split. This makes it really, really difficult for middle of the road teams to have fans that are with them through thick and thin.

A lot of people love Complexity and EG, but it's entirely possibly that you will see neither of them in the next LCS split.

How can we have those die hard fans when the league changes so often? Why is the system not more akin to any other professional sport? Riot (as The League) names and those organizations or people who wish to become owners. Those owners can draft PLAYERS to their teams, make trades, drops, etc.

This means your favorite players are actually on teams that you know will stick around for the entirety of the LCS. Sponsors can sponsor an owner/manager for the team, but Riot controls the number of teams still. I don't even care what the team names are. Stick with TSM/Cloud9 or go crazy and have the 'Logitech Ligers'...doesn't matter. I'll be able to follow my team until the LCS stops, not just until they have a bad split.

TLDR: Riot needs to manage the team names/owners so we don't have relegation matches of whole teams, but rather challenger players are drafted up by team owners. Teams need to be consistent across all splits of the LCS for a real fan base to develop outside of the super well known teams.

13 Comments

12tales8/7/2014, 12:49:57 PM1 votes

I mean, if you end up with a situation like we had last split where an absolutely terrible team (Coast) had two really good players (Zion and Shiphtur), I can't really think of a more elegant solution than the one already in place. The team gets replaced with a better team, while other organization's players are replaced with better players. In an alternate reality where Coast got to stay in the LCS - can you imagine the scene being better for it?

Earl Eulrich8/7/2014, 1:41:40 PM1 votes

While i really like complexity and EG and hope they´ll win their relegation matches...i don´t think savety like that has any value in competetive sports. The best teams should perform on the highest league, not the teams with the most popular names. Though i could imagine the League involving more teams, so beeing middle of the pack is still fairly save.

Serpents Embrace8/7/2014, 2:49:14 PM1 votes

Isn't this the sane way pro sports works? :\ I don't follow it but I was at a baseball game the other week and my mother kept having to stop herself from cheering for a player that used to be on our team but was on the opposition the game we went. It might not facilitate team loyalty but that seems like more of a lack of localization for teams rather than a player one.

Taric Rework Suggestions

ExecutiveRage8/9/2014, 6:03:56 PM1 votes

YOU PLAY MTG!!!

Kapi8/9/2014, 7:55:14 PM1 votes

If Loyalty existed, then the "Challenger Series" Teams would get a huge boost of fans, As we see in Europe for example there is starting to be big names attempting to rise up with a new team back into the LCS. I think it would be good for competitions sake to make a "2nd League" as exiting as possible to make "Promotions to the Main League" more interesting.

Quiet frankly I would even make it the 2/3 Last teams of the LCS drop immediately, and are replaced by the top 2/3 "Challenger Series/2nd League's" Teams.