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[Reminder] The Expansion Tournament , which decides which two teams will fill the final two sports in the 2015 LCS season, has started up and will run almost every weekend through December 21st! The first few rounds of the expansion tournament are over for North America but just starting for Europe! Here's a list of the teams still in the running:

but just starting for Here's a list of the teams still in the running: NA



Final Five





Coast





Fusion





Curse Academy



Europe (One round behind)

(One round behind)

Millenium





Giants Gaming





H2k





n!faculty





Gamers2





Reason Gaming





Different Dimension





Meloncats More information on the tourney can be found here. VODs can be found here. New Sale of Sponsorship Rule - Due to some issues with blurred lines in the rule set regarding team ownership and conflicts of interests, Riot amended their ruleset to allow for more clarity. The TL;DR is below is taken directly from Lolesports:

We’re instituting a new policy to better distinguish between LCS team owners, brand owners, and those who sell sponsorships for LCS teams to uphold competitive integrity and prevent conflicts of interest. Those selling sponsorships on behalf of LCS teams will no longer be able to also own LCS team branding. 2014 LCS teams Evil Geniuses and Alliance will be playing under different brands (names, logos, etc.) next season. GoodGame Agency, which currently sells sponsorships on behalf of both teams, will continue to do so.

Riot also recently amended their rules to allow for coaches to be present on stage during the champion select portion of the game among a variety of other changes. The TL;DR of the changes is below:

We’re leveling up our support of coaching in the LCS. Head Coaches will now be officially recognized as LCS team members. Each team will be provided monetary support to shore up their ability to attract and retain a quality Head Coach and coaching staff. LCS Head Coaches will now be subject to behavioral checks, required to attend their teams’ matches in person, and held to the highest standard of conduct in and out of game. LCS Head Coaches will now be on-stage and able to communicate with their players during the pick-ban phase.

Riot also recently announced a change to their eSports banning policies to allow for reform instead of just permanently banning people. TL;DR is below: We want disciplinary action to be about reform as well as punishment. We are introducing a new framework for long-term bans and permabans that treats all bans as suspensions subject to periodic review. More details on the timing and criteria for this review are available below. The two existing indefinite suspensions of Nicolaj “Incarnati0n” Jensen and Khaled “DarkwinJax” Abusagr have been reviewed and neither case successfully passed its review. As such they will not be eligible for play in CS or LCS Spring 2015. Jensen and Abusagr will be reviewed again at least 5 weeks before the LCS Summer 2015 roster declaration date.

Off Season News

North America: Doublelift and Aphromoo announced they were re-signing with CLG for the upcoming season. Team Curse was invited to IEM Cologne due to a fan vote, but had to decline the invitation due to issues with Quas' passport and visa. Bee Sin was moved to coach of Fusion while Dynasty was moved to the head coach position. Noblesse left the team.

Europe: Copenhagen Wolves announced they would be re-signing their current team, including:

announced they would be re-signing their current team, including: Youngbuck



Airwaks



SorenXD



Unlimited



Also joining them will be Freeze in the AD Carry role Meloncat's toplaner Flaxxish was banned from participating during the 2015 Spring Split due to in game toxic behavior

Korea:

Samsung recently had an exodus of the remaining players on the team, effectively dissolving Samsung White and Samsung Blue.





This Week in eSports is back with information on Riot's updated rules regarding permabanned players and coaches, the latest from the ongoing NA and EU expansion tournament, and more!