The 2019 LCS Spring Finals will be coming to St. Louis on April 13 at the Chaifetz Arena. Games begin at 3:00 PM CST / 1:00 PM PST.

LCS Spring Finals ticket information will be posted on Lolesports.com on February 25.

Why St. Louis?

Riot Games has a long history in St. Louis; in the early days of the company, we opened one of our first offices outside of our HQ there. St. Louis is a city with a rich sports legacy, great local pride, and an engaged esports fanbase – just as importantly, it’s easy to reach from multiple points in the US, which makes it logistically easier for us to put on a great show for multiple fans. We haven’t had a show in the Midwest since Worlds swung through Chicago in 2016, so it’s well overdue that we came back to this region.

Wait, is that one day of Finals? What happened to Finals weekend?

This year, we’re trying something new with Spring Finals. We’re going to be removing the 3rd/4th place match, and will only have the top two teams in North America competing for the title of Spring Split Champion and the right to play at MSI. While there’s certainly been some great moments in 3rd/4th place matches of year past, it’s also provided some underwhelming matchups and diminished fan interest due to the lower stakes. To help further build the hype for the Finals, and to give all teams a chance to participate in the weekend, we are working on adding a “fan fest” event on Friday where we’re hoping to bring together teams, pros, sponsors, and the League of Legends community. We’re still negotiating with a venue but hope to share more information about the scale and scope of this event soon.

UPDATE: A standalone “fan fest” event will not be possible for Spring Finals 2019. We will still have fan activities and events for ticketholders before the show starts on Saturday, April 13. More details about when doors will open and what activities will be at Chaifetz will be provided in our event guide.

Wait, will we ever get 3rd place match back in Spring?

Never say never in esports, but I doubt we’ll include a 3rd/4th place match in Spring Finals again. We want to focus Spring Split on the championship match (and determining the MSI representative) and otherwise try to free up time and space to do more fun activations for the fans. We’re still planning the conclusion to our Summer Split, but it’s more likely that we would play a 3rd/4th Place game then to help rank teams for Worlds and the Regional Qualifier (and when fan interest is far greater).

Will the third-place match still be played? If so, when and where?

For Spring Split, no. As we mentioned above, a 3rd/4th place match may still be incorporated at the end of Summer, but we haven’t yet determined whether that would be played at the Finals or right before the Regional Qualifiers.

When will Summer Finals be announced? Will it only be one day too?

As soon as we have details to share around Summer Finals, we will release those. We are still working through the format for Summer Finals weekend.

Why do I have to wait a month to get ticket information?

When we book a venue, it’s not as simple as putting every ticket on sale. Given the unique aspects of our show (need to see players, master gameplay screen, analyst desk location etc), we need to evaluate sight lines for every seat and try to understand whether there are going to be obstacles that make that seat less desirable for a fan. To do this means that we have to have our entire set design completed, and we can’t begin that process until we are pretty deep in negotiations with the venue itself. Our process essentially goes: sign with the venue > complete the set design > identify seats to remove from sale > put tickets on sale. And given that we design original sets for each of our shows, the set design process can take several weeks, and that, unfortunately, pushes out our ticket timeline.

What’s the capacity of Chaifetz Arena? Are we going to have another Miami situation?

The capacity of Chaifetz Arena is 10,600 seats, though after production, technical, and sightline considerations, we expect roughly 8,500 seats to be placed on sale. We will also be debuting a new ticketing format for this show: rather than 100% assigned seating, the overwhelming majority of tickets will be sold in tiers of General Admission. This will allow groups of friends to purchase tickets independently of each other while retaining the ability to sit together (so long as they arrive together). There will also be a smaller number of assigned premium seating tickets available for purchase with dedicated seat numbers and locations.

Will I be able to meet the pros? Will there be merch? When do doors open?

We’ll cover more of these event-specific details along with the ticket information on Monday, February 25.