Competitive LoL will have a different look this 2021 season as the LCS makes major changes with how the circuit works. LCS hopes that the North American region will become more competitive through these changes.
Major Changes to the LCS Spring Split
The League Championship Series (LCS) is the League of Legends (LoL) North American region (NA) competitive circuit. Having a long history of unsuccessful runs in the World Championships, things obviously have to change for the better. To address this, the LCS decided to make major changes to how it chooses its representatives.
The first major change is the introduction of the LCS Lock-In. It will kick off the new season, its purpose being finding out which team everyone should be looking out for in the current season. It will feature a big $150,000 prize pool, with the whole pot going to the eventual winners of the tournament. The LCS Lock-in will feature ten teams, two of which are pre-determined – last year's top teams Team SoloMid and FlyQuest. This tournament will run early next year, from January 15 to 31, 2021.
The Spring Split regular season will start six weeks after the LCS Lock-In. Running from February 5 to March 14, 2021, the Spring Split will give teams the opportunity to earn the first title of the region for 2021.
The top six teams of the Spring Split will head to the Mid-Season Showdown. Similar to this year's Spring Split Playoffs, it will be a double-elimination bracket, with the 5th and 6th seeds starting in the lower bracket. The winner of the Mid-Season Showdown will win the first LCS title of 2021 and qualify into the Mid-Season Invitational, 2021's first international competition.
Major Changes to the LCS Summer Split
Here comes the biggest kicker of the upcoming 2021 season: all of NA's three representative to Worlds will be determined by the Summer Split. Yes, winning the Mid-Season Showdown will mean nothing if you don't get out alive in the Summer Split. From June 4 to August 1, teams will fight in a final bid to improve their regular season record.
After the Summer Split regular season, teams' regular season records for the Spring and Summer Splits will be tallied together. LCS will then seed the teams based on their overall record in the end-of-season LCS Championship. The LCS Championship will determine NA's second champion and the region's three representatives to Worlds.
Occurring on August 7 to 29, 2021, the LCS Championship will be the first and only chance for NA teams to qualify to Worlds. Performing better during the regular seasons ensure a better seeding position for teams, but even the worst-performing teams may still qualify for Worlds if they end up winning the LCS Championship. The LCS will be a double-elimination bracket with a few twists and turns. For example, teams who have faced each other earlier in the tournament will no longer meet until the later stages of the bracket. The LCS is now reserving grudge matches for the late game.
Conclusion
These are the biggest changes to the season format of the LCS. This new format may seem to favor Summer Split performance over the Spring Split. Some fans might feel like the Spring Split has become useless because of this. But the reverse is true, in fact. Both Splits now have equal impacts on a team's chances at Worlds. The teams' performance on both Splits will determine their placement in the LCS Championship. Remaining consistent all year round is more important than ever in 2021.
Whether or not these changes will help North American teams to become more competitive in the long-run is an entirely new issue. Will 2021 be NA's year at Worlds, or will the cold streak continue? Only time can tell.
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