Possible Ranked team league. [5v5 LCS style leagues]

This is a plan for a 5v5 ranked team league system I personally think should be implemented to allow lower league players to enjoy Ranked teams and subsequently progress at a team. As well as allowing players of all rank to play competitively. Any additions or mistakes I have made please point out below. Ranked teams seem to be the reserve for the better players in league, and not all ranked team players are Diamond-Challenger. Also not all Diamond-Challenger players always get a shot at the top teams. I doubt Riot will see this, and if they do I doubt they would implement it, but it to me seems like something that could work. Sorry it's a long read :'(

The League itself:

• Leagues are based on your rank but are diverse enough to allow fair team compositions. Each team is allowed max of 2 players below the league rank, 15 of the league rank, and 2 above plus 1 two leagues above. E.g. Gold league 2 is allowed (2 Silver/15 Gold/2 Plat/1 Diamond). But league 1 would allow for one more Plat player, so increasing the 1 league above to 3 players. Each team is based around a club which allows for perhaps 15-20 players.

• Leagues play for 3months (A season) and there are 2 Seasons in a year. Maybe: December/January/February and July/August/September

• Games are played whenever the team captains of both teams decide. The TC's are told who they are to play on Monday at 12:00AM GMT every week and must decide a time slot and date during the week. Both TC's must decide, if you cannot play, you move the games to the replay week. Which is played after the season has finished. This can be done max 7 times before the team starts to forfeit points.

• Leagues consist of (10-20) teams, depending on what Riot think they can handle. Allowing 40 team places per rank per server. This means teams are still rather limited but are also accessible.

• There are 4 main stages to a season: Playoffs, Segment 1, Segment 2, Replays

• Playoffs (Below), Segment 1 lasts for 8 weeks, and 2 games are played a week. Then there is a 3 week break, then Segment 2 is played, with only 1 game a week. This lasts a week. (This is alterable, and is based on there being 20 teams in a league). Then the week after the league finishes, the replays are played.

• The Seasons teams are decided in the Playoff stages (Seen below) Teams that finish in the bottom two are deducted 1 point from the Playoff group stages of that league. Teams that finish in the top two are given 2 points in the league above's Playoffs (This is the only exception to the rank restrictions if that team gets promoted).

• Leagues are set out like this:

Bronze League 2 Bronze League 1 Silver League 2 Silver League 1 Gold League 2 Gold League 1 Plat League 2 Plat League 1 Diamond League 2 Diamond League 1 LoL Promotion League (Leads to the League Challenger series, with 2 teams ascending and 2 dropping) ** Play-offs **

• Playoffs are played in a tournament group stage style, letting the top few in the group progress into the league. This is played at the start of every season allowing new teams to move into the League.

• Max of 25-40 entrants, again depending on what Riot can handle.

• Games are played over 2 days.

How to implement the leagues.

• The best way to implement these leagues is to do it through the launcher and the Club system. As the club system hardly has any job. Teams are created through clubs and clubs can have up to 5 teams attached to it. Teams can have 15 players (Perhaps more maybe?) and must correspond with the rank restrictions to sign up for tournaments. Teams must chose 11 fixed players that cannot be changed at the start of the league. Only 4 can be changed, but can be changed whenever, as long as they again correspond with the restrictions. Team games can also be played through the club system, as well as opportunities to play other teams in 'Scrims' throughout the year. So the TC or Manager finds teams and invites them to Scrim.

• To join a league, the teams players must match the leagues requirements, then the TC/Manager can apply to join a league on a certain day, or anytime.

• I understand it could be alot of work for Riot but it sureeely, will be worth it.

**Managers, Team Captains and Club owners. **

• These roles are filled out by accounts and the team captains and managers can be allocated by Club Owners.

• Team captains must be a player on the team, Managers do not have to be.

• Their role consists of setting up game times throughout the league, and organising scrims. And perhaps managing an in-built calender to help teams schedules if they wish to have one.

• The Club Owners role is kicking and adding players and creating and deleting teams (Teams cannot be deleted when they are accepted to a league). As well as setting Managers and TC's.

Other

• Games will be showcased in the launcher perhaps instead of the 'Spectate Challenger games'. And players will be shown at one side of the launcher what games are being played in what leagues, so if they wish to, they can spectate.

• Results of the EU/NA leagues will be mentioned or just shown in their respective LCS streams, giving them more recognition. And perhaps, replay the games live after LCS games (just a thought).

• Teams that are due to play and are based closely, perhaps Riot could run live games for.

• 6 months of downtime allow for Tournaments to run, therefore not killing the online tournaments such as ESL's go4LoL.

• Prizes can be decided by Riot, but double the tournament RP perhaps? And if it's not to hard to create, Ranked team rewards. Perhaps for the LoL Promotion League, there could be money rewards? **

• Perhaps, there should be a player database, for teams looking for players and vice versa. Not sure how this would work, but as the 'Looking for Group' chat is so overcrowded, I feel there should be a website, or something that players can detail what roles/Champs they play and when they are available. So that TC's or Managers can find new players easily.

Positives**

• Lower teams can physically progress to the LCS (if they work hard enough). And also allows an easy and constant way for teams to progress.

• Higher teams have an easier method of getting into the LCS too, as well as early recognition for teams.

• An increase in the ranked team player base, creating the talent that might be needed for future Esports games.

• An outlook of Esports that it can be for everyone, not just the best. And an ability for everyone to play competitively and 'make new friends' ;).

• Creates little celebrities ;)

• The LoL promotion League will replace the Open regional qualifiers.

• This allows no changes to the LCS, and only minor changes to the CS. So the top leagues take little amendment and don't have to stop for this to take place. Makes league one of the only games to have a robust ESports for lower teams.

**Negatives **

• The league runs for a long period of time, 3 months commitment is hard to get -_ League players spend hundreds of hours if not more on league. If theres one community that does not struggle with commitment, its the league one. _

• It will be a challenge for Riot to implement correctly and efficiently - _It probably will, but if they do this, it certainly will give me an incentive to buy RP. And this perhaps might even lead to Riot creating more jobs! _

• 2 Games a week? For 2 months? Thats so much and its way to serious it's not the LCS. - _It is alot of games, but it can be cut with the amount of teams per league, so it's fixable. And you're right, it's not the LCS, but the ranked rewards, team diversity and game availability should allow for teams to play around everyone's schedule, instead of bounding people to their computers at times they might not be free.
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• Is there any real progression for teams? As surely if they do get promoted using the 2 wins worth of points in the group stages, they wont be able to compete with the teams that are already there? -_ This is something that can only be solved with trying it out, I feel that given the diverse rank restrictions and the achievable goal given to the team, they would show an impressive amount of progression, with teams not just progressing as a team, but also individually in Soloq. And also increasing the rank restrictions in the League 1 should allow for more prep going into the League above. _

What happens to teams who apply for the league above and don't get promoted? - _I feel to ensure teams attempting to promote themselves and not just sitting in one league, they should be given a chance to re-enter the league beneath. By playing a team in the league below maybe? _

• ESL already play a 5v5 ladder and the LoL Battlegrounds is already run by Riot, why is this necessary? It might just put extra strain on Riot who should be focusing on LCS and the game itself. - _ESL's ladder is a good alternative to this. Alongside their Go4LoL tournaments. But i feel its time for Riot to actually contribute to their games Esports on every level. Not to mention, by having Riot run the leagues, it will be easily available and given more attention than an ESL ladder. Also you need to sign up to ESL and register a team there, why not use the inbuilt Club and team system on league? And the LoL Battlegrounds shows Riot is willing to push ESports into their communities. But just haven't yet used the format of leagues only Tournaments. _

• How to deal with Smurf accounts? Riot can't check every player in every league and by increasing the reward won't loads of people just smurf?. - _Riot can't check every player, but tournaments do sometimes run smoothly even though there is the threat of smurfs. And here we can issue bans and punishment for the team and the player if caught smurfing directly from Riot. Also the diverse rank restrictions should make players not need to smurf. _

• Who is going to ensure the leagues run smoothly? - _That's up for Riot to decide, I feel there should be a voluntary set of roles for members of the community to hold that entail: settling disputes, spotting and reporting smurfs, taking care of accidental game dates and dealing with No-show teams. As for banning players and teams, dishing out rewards ETC, a Riot staff member might have to be allocated for each division. _

• If the leagues are too overcrowded, teams could never get a chance to join and if its only 2 chances a year then how is that fair? - _You're right the chances are limited, but hopefully if Riot can manage 25-40 teams in the playoffs, that allows a chance to 80 teams max to join per Rank division per server. Maybe there could be a scrim ladder? And the teams who are applying who have the most scrim wins would get priority over those with less? (Again, just a thought). _

• Will there be any age restrictions for players like in the CS? - _Again totally up to Riot, If there are to be restrictions they should only be on the LoL Promotion League (LPL) and they should be the same or better than the CS's restrictions of two 16 year old players max. _

• Why not just stick to the well established Tournaments? - _ There are well made tournaments made by Riot and others that do satisfy many Ranked team players. However, I feel Leagues are more fitting to LoL, as firstly it's called 'League of Legends' not tournament of Legends. And secondly, the top tiers are played on a League format, so having no Riot-made leagues for lower leagues I feel cuts the lower players out completely. And by having a tournament leading into a league (The CS Qualifiers into the CS) does not give teams experience for the top and the commitment behind playing there. Whereas having the LPL going into the CS, would give teams hundreds of hours of experience in leagues. _

That's all ;) If you have any contributions that would make this easier or better, please do tell meeee. Also tell me if you like the idea and think you could play in one of the leagues, twice a week for 2 months.

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