Apart from the return to weekends, more massive changes are set to hit the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) this 2024. LCS Commissioner Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman revealed these changes in his 2024 LCS Address, an annual video series that will discuss the league, its fans, and what viewers can expect.
LCS in 2024
2024 marks the 12th season of the LCS, and it also means a lot of changes for the league. For starters, the LCS Spring Split 2024 will begin on Saturday, January 20, meaning it's back on weekends!
Regular Season will run until March 10 with two Super Weeks, and playoffs will happen on March 14 to 31.
Fans can grab tickets for all LCS matches at the Riot Games Arena LA here, starting at 10 am Pacific Time on January 10.
The competitive format for LCS Spring Split 2024 remains the same, apart from the fact that there are only 8 teams playing from the 10 of previous years. It will kick off with a best-of-one double round-robin regular season, followed by a six-team playoff bracket with four teams starting in the upper bracket. The champion and runner-up of the Spring Split will represent the LCS at the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational in Chengdu, China.
“Our decision to maintain best-of-ones for Spring Split was made after considering the weight of other changes we’re instituting this season,” said Riot Games in a press release. “Here, best-of-ones act as a control variable — we have a very strong understanding of where viewership starts, ebbs, and flows under this regular season format, which enables us to track the impact of the other changes and how they are being received by fans.”
LCS Introduces Live Patch Play
The LCS pros will be playing on the live patch to “help create a more tangible connection between pro play and the wider League of Legends community.” This means that whatever version of the game you're playing on, that's the version being played on-stage. “Competing on the live patch is a change we hope will invigorate both fans and players. Fans can take anything they see on stage directly into their own matches, while pros will no longer need to practice two versions of the game,” said Riot.
Appropriate steps to maintain competitive integrity like ensuring the Tournament Realm is always updated for practice will be taken. Additionally, live patch play will only apply for the regular season – playoffs will still take place on a singular, locked patch.
“As we implement live patch play, we’ll closely monitor the pro player experience and take notes so that other leagues may follow in our steps.”
Less Downtime Between Matches in LCS 2024
The LCS will be reducing downtime in between matches and giving the whole broadcast a smoother flow. The drafts for regular season matches will be completed and pre-recorded in the teams' practice rooms while the previous match is on-going, then they will head backstage to wait for the stage match to finish. After this, while the teams are doing their tech and ready checks, the pre-recorded draft phase will be aired for the casters' live reactions.
“With this change, the broadcast can divert more resources to match-focused content and free the analyst desk to publish their creative segments where it makes most sense. Our analysts will still be at the studio every day producing the LCS preshow and postshow, with some postgame coverage where appropriate,” says Riot. “But now, freed from the restrictions of a traditional
analyst desk, they can focus on creating content with our production teams without the usual time or available personnel constraints.”
This will only be applicable to regular season matches, like live patch play.
More Fan Interaction
Lastly, the LCS is pushing for more viewer and fan interaction. Polls and predictions are a given, but they intend to take this a step further. Some of the ideas mentioned were having fans vote on which lane the broadcast will follow and discuss post-draft, or pick which player stays on-stage for the post-game interview. “There's so much untapped potential… and we're ready to examine it all.”
“Interactivity is a two-way street. In building more ways for fans to connect with the LCS, we also need to create more avenues to connect with our fans. We’re renewing our commitment to communication and transparency in 2024, so expect a regular cadence of updates from us in the form of AMAs, blog posts, videos and more. We are ready to make changes to better the league, and that starts with fan input,” Riot Games concluded.
The LCS is also going to be opened for co-streaming, with eligible creators being announced very soon.
Regular Season
- Week 1 (Opening Week): Jan. 20-21
- Week 2: Jan. 27-28
- Week 3 (Super Week): Feb. 2-4
- Week 4: Feb. 10-11
- Week 5: Mar. 2-3
- Week 6 (Super Week): Mar. 8-10
Playoffs
- Week 1: Mar. 14-17
- Week 2: Mar. 23-24
- Spring Finals: Mar. 30-31
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