According to a report by ESPN's Jacob Wolf, the EU LCS has stepped back from plans to switch to a regionalized format in 2018,

The plans, initially reported by Wolf in early September, would see the EU LCS switch to a soccer-inspired format that would see four regional leagues in Berlin, London, France and Barcelona that would feed into one premier league. This regionalized format would also allegedly feature 24 total teams.

ESPN is now reporting that Riot has decided not to implement this format, and was reportedly "concerned it would not be able to institute the regional changes efficiently." According to Wolf, Riot will instead give teams a higher stipend for participating in the league, up from €350,000 to €500,000.

The report also states that the EU LCS will move back to a round-robin best-of-one format in 2018, much like NA, and do away with relegation. It is unclear how Riot will handle the Challenger League if this is the case.

This report comes after weeks of team owners and executives speaking out about the difficulty of operating in the EU LCS, with H2K's Richard Lippe threatening to pull out of the league, and the Unicorns of Love's Jos Mallant stating that teams should lower their investments in the European league.

Daniel Rosen is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.