The LCS season has almost reached its conclusion, and the World Championship is scheduled for October. At the start of 2015, the LCS was significantly overhauled into its current format; this article seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the changes for both teams and viewers.

Last update: January 2016

Expansion to Bo2 / Bo3 (Updated Jan. 2016)

Adopted in 2015, the 9-week double round-robin format of the regular season is more viewer-friendly than the 28-game schedule of previous splits, due to consistent scheduling (e.g. no superweeks) and fewer matches (making every game more important in the standings). As discussed previously on this blog, however, adoption of the double round-robin Bo2 / Bo3 format represents a potential improvement. While an extra day of matches in each region would have to be added, teams would still only have to appear at the studio 18 days a split. Moreover, teams would get to play two or three games, rather than one, increasing the efficiency of their trips to the studio. Adopting the Bo2 / Bo3 format would bring the LCS closer to its Asian counterparts and provide a more competitive environment in preparation for international play.

In a Bo2 format, each LCS regular season would last 10 weeks. There would be 18 games (9 Bo2 series) played each week per region, for a total of 360 matches. Under a new format, each team would play each other in a 2-game series twice every split. More specifically, matches would be scheduled each week as follows:

Wednesday: 3 Bo2 series (EU)

Thursday: 3 Bo2 series (EU)

Friday: 3 Bo2 series (EU), 2 Bo2 series (NA)

Saturday: 4 Bo2 series (NA)

Sunday: 3 Bo2 series (NA)

Update: The LCS will shift to a Bo2 and Bo3 format for EU and NA respectively, beginning in the Summer 2016 split.

Revisions to Auto-relegation and Promotion (Updated Jan. 2016)

This season, the Challenger Scene champion was auto-promoted to the next split of the LCS, and the last-placing team in the LCS was auto-relegated to the next split of the CS. While auto-promotion benefits CS teams by presenting a guaranteed path to professional play, auto-relegation may be too detrimental for struggling LCS teams. For instance, Team Dragon Knights of NA LCS Summer 2015 were unable to field their starting roster for the first half of the split, and predictably went 0-9. While they were able to go 3-6 in the second half of the split, they were still auto-relegated, with ninth-place Enemy Esports going 4-14 overall but only 1-8 in the second half of the split. Thus, auto-relegation may not be completely effective at removing the least performing team in the league as expected.

To resolve this, the last-place team should still participate in the promotional tournament, which shall be restructured from its current play-off format.

The top 7 LCS teams continue to play next split.

The first-place Challenger team is automatically promoted to the LCS.

Four teams (8th – 10th LCS, 2nd – 3rd CS) will be entered into a Bo5 bracket stage to determine the two spots available in the next split of the LCS. The 8th-place LCS team is given a bye in this promotional tournament.

Round 1: 9th- and 10th-place LCS teams face off against a CS team, with the former getting team selection. Winners proceed to Round 2, and losers are sent to next split’s Challenger Series.

Round 2: The 8th place LCS team faces one team from Round 1 of its choosing. Winner moves to LCS.

Round 3: The loser of Round 2 faces the remaining team, with the victor promoted to the LCS and the loser entered into next split’s Challenger Series.

Update: The LCS has adopted a new promotional tournament format with byes and double-elimination, starting Spring 2016.

Round 1: The 10th-place LCS team plays the 2nd-place CS team. Winner proceeds to Round 2, and the loser are sent to next split’s Challenger Series.

The 10th-place LCS team plays the 2nd-place CS team. Winner proceeds to Round 2, and the loser are sent to next split’s Challenger Series. Round 2: The winner of Round 1 faces the 8th place LCS team, and the 9th-place team faces the CS champion. Winners move to LCS.

The winner of Round 1 faces the 8th place LCS team, and the 9th-place team faces the CS champion. Winners move to LCS. Round 3: The losers of Round 2 play each other for the final spot in the LCS.

International Competition

Excluding the International Wildcard events, 2015 hosted four major international tournaments:

March: IEM Katowice

May: MSI

October: WC

December: All-Stars

Overall, 2015’s international calendar was quite compelling. MSI has made the spring split “matter” by rewarding each regional champion with an invite to a prestigious tournament. Additionally, All-Stars’ move to the off-season closed a five-month gap between East-West play.

Currently, the greatest deficiency of the international calendar is the five-month gap between MSI and WC. Fortunately, one potential solution immediately emerges. As discussed previously on this blog, this gap can be closed by scheduling two IEM-style tournaments during July, roughly the midpoint of the summer split. The Battle of the Atlantic single-elimination tournament (4-6 teams) would be hosted in eastern North America or western Europe, while the East Asia Invitational would include participants from LCK, LPL, and LMS.

The Complete Proposal for LCS 2016

Based on the above analysis, this blog presents the following changes to the existing LCS format as follows:

The 2016 season begins in mid-January, same as in 2015. Every team in the LCS plays against every other team twice (Bo1 in Spring, Bo2/Bo3 in Summer) over the 9-week regular season.

At the midpoint and conclusion of each split follows a major international tournament. Top-placing teams are invited to these events as follows:

IEM Katowice : The top-ranked team at the end of the first half of the spring split (Week 5) earns an invite to IEM Katowice in ol.March.

: The top-ranked team at the end of the first half of the spring split (Week 5) earns an invite to IEM Katowice in ol.March. MSI : The winners of each region’s spring playoffs, along with the International Wildcard Tournament champion are invited (same as in 2015).

: The winners of each region’s spring playoffs, along with the International Wildcard Tournament champion are invited (same as in 2015). Battle of the Atlantic: The top two teams in NA and EU at the end of the first half of the summer split (Week 5) are invited to the Battle of the Atlantic tournament in July. BotA is a two-round single-elimination tournament, with #1 seeds facing the opposing region’s #2 seed in the semifinals. Future editions of the tournament may expand to 6 teams, with top CBLOL or Latin American teams invited.

The top two teams in NA and EU at the end of the first half of the summer split (Week 5) are invited to the Battle of the Atlantic tournament in July. BotA is a two-round single-elimination tournament, with #1 seeds facing the opposing region’s #2 seed in the semifinals. Future editions of the tournament may expand to 6 teams, with top CBLOL or Latin American teams invited. World Championship: Qualification will be discussed in an upcoming article.

The complete timeline of these events is summarized below.

Timeline (International tournaments are bolded):

LCS Spring 2016 Regular Season First Half: 1/14 – 2/14 IEM Katowice : 3/4 – 3/6 Regular Season Second Half: 2/18 – 3/20 Promotion: 3/24 – 3/27 Playoffs: 4/2 – 4/17

Midseason Invitational : 5/3 – 5/15

: 5/3 – 5/15 LCS Summer 2015 Regular Season First Half: 5/24 – 6/26 Battle of the Atlantic : 7/9 – 7/10 Regular Season Second Half: 6/28 – 8/7 Playoffs: 8/13 – 8/28 WC Regional Finals: 9/2 – 9/4 Promotion: 9/8 – 9/11

World Championship Group Stages: 9/29 – 10/9 Quarterfinals: 10/13 – 10/16 Semifinals: 10/22 – 10/23 Finals: 10/30 (East), 10/29 (West)

All-Stars: December