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United States23745 Posts
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.
PlayoffsThe 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: + Show Spoiler +NA and EU Regional QualifiersThe 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 http://na.lolesports.com/articles/championship-points-unlocked-and-more-2015-lcs-changes
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I feel like shit like this needs to be announced MONTHS in advance for teams. It's so unprofessional to release this shit 2 weeks before season starts. Similarly the World's announcement for S4 was fucking stupid as hell.
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Having only 2 games per opponent in a split makes me wish they'd move away from the Bo1 format.
It's nice to see that the Spring split matters now, but I wish they would play out tiebreakers for circuit points rather than automatically awarding it to the team in Summer.
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Good changes, but still bo1 is terrible and we really need bo2/bo3. Imagine if today OGN game was bo1.
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So if a team gets 10th place in the Spring Split, they automatically don't have a chance at Summer Split? How is this logical if there is a chance that the 10th place LCS team is still stronger than the 1st place Challenger Team.
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That sucks for the 10th place team. Not even a chance of challenging the 1st place challenger team for the LCS spot.
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United States23745 Posts
On January 08 2015 06:07 wei2coolman wrote: I feel like shit like this needs to be announced MONTHS in advance for teams. It's so unprofessional to release this shit 2 weeks before season starts. Similarly the World's announcement for S4 was fucking stupid as hell. I can't confirm, but I feel like they probably shared this news with teams before announcing it to the pubic.
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On January 08 2015 06:13 jaybans wrote: So if a team gets 10th place in the Spring Split, they automatically don't have a chance at Summer Split? How is this logical if there is a chance that the 10th place LCS team is still stronger than the 1st place Challenger Team.
I think they are really trying to push the Challenger scene so its not just recycled teams and old players. This way new talent takes a stronger interest in it because its a instant jump to the LCS if you win.
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United States23745 Posts
Also Super Week was good for story lines, but I'm glad it's dead.
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On January 08 2015 06:16 onlywonderboy wrote:Show nested quote +On January 08 2015 06:07 wei2coolman wrote: I feel like shit like this needs to be announced MONTHS in advance for teams. It's so unprofessional to release this shit 2 weeks before season starts. Similarly the World's announcement for S4 was fucking stupid as hell. I can't confirm, but I feel like they probably shared this news with teams before announcing it to the pubic. Knowing Riot they didn't.
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nice that they kick out the last team and give the first challenger team a bye. Nice nice nice
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On January 08 2015 06:13 jaybans wrote: So if a team gets 10th place in the Spring Split, they automatically don't have a chance at Summer Split? How is this logical if there is a chance that the 10th place LCS team is still stronger than the 1st place Challenger Team.
The value of giving the 1st challenger team a chance of improving in an proffesional environment is much higher then keeping the 10th place team in LCS.
Additionaly is it (at least for me) mopre interesting to watch knowing that there is a punishment for last place.
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
The 10th - 1st swap makes a lot of sense to me. It's what other relegation leagues do. And it makes the fight at the bottom more desperate/interesting.
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It gives a great opportunity to the #1 challenger team to improve. We've seen cases where they've choked at the final stages before despite probably being better than the team they lost to.
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
I do worry it'll be slightly confusing. In particular the transition between Summer playoffs and Summer regional qualifier might be weird.
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On January 08 2015 06:25 TitusVI wrote:Show nested quote +On January 08 2015 06:13 jaybans wrote: So if a team gets 10th place in the Spring Split, they automatically don't have a chance at Summer Split? How is this logical if there is a chance that the 10th place LCS team is still stronger than the 1st place Challenger Team. The value of giving the 1st challenger team a chance of improving in an proffesional environment is much higher then keeping the 10th place team in LCS. Additionaly is it (at least for me) mopre interesting to watch knowing that there is a punishment for last place. It definitely incentivizes 1st place in challenger series, but I feel like the punishment doesn't fit the crime in the LCS. If the challenger teams that get into the LCS don't take the season by storm like C9 and LMQ were able to do I foresee most, if not all, 10th place teams being the Challenger teams that just enter the LCS that season. It'll basically become don't get 10th, rather than let's make playoffs.
I also feel like playing professionally is about who can play through the pressure. Making the 1st place Challenger team not have to play under any pressure to get into the LCS feels counter intuitive to me.
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Autopromotion/relegation is worse in the short-term but better for talent development and in the long-term. In the short term, the 10th team may actually be better than the 1st challenger team. But I would not be surprised if many of the challenger teams that lose could actually have a higher skill ceiling in the long run if they had the same resources and experience as the 10th place team. I mean, no one here actually thought that CW was better than H2K, but when it all comes down to a single series, anything can happen.
Plus, the relegation system heavily favors the LCS team already because the last week of LCS is played far before the promo series. The last promo series, the 7th/8th place team had a month off to practice picks/strats in secret while the challenger playoffs were only two weeks before promo tournament, so the LCS teams had a big scouting advantage.
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I'm at work so I was trying to check which first place Challenger teams didn't make the LCS during the promos and the list I got was:
The Walking Zed, C9E, and H2K(Who later got in through expansion.)
Also the last place teams that managed to avoid relegation:
Velocity(Who became EG.), Mil, and the Wolves
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United States23745 Posts
On January 08 2015 06:37 GrandInquisitor wrote: I do worry it'll be slightly confusing. In particular the transition between Summer playoffs and Summer regional qualifier might be weird.
Well the winner of Summer playoffs still auto qualifies for Worlds so it doesn't change that much there.
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It's definitely still hard for teams to play only a single game for their set of circuit points, but from what I can tell, the new amount of teams should mean less games per week for each team overall. This means they won't have to spend quite as much time preparing for multiple opponents, and can instead focus on one. Hopefully, anyways
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