TL;DR
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- The LCS Spring and Summer Splits will consist of eight-week double round robins, with five games played on Saturday and Sunday. Two weeks each split will be designated as Super Weeks, featuring an additional five matches on Friday. Regular season records will no longer carry over from Spring to Summer Splits.
- We’ve eliminated Academy Playoffs — all 10 Academy teams will qualify for Proving Grounds to face the top 10 Amateur teams. The Amateur Circuit will be held across two tournaments each split that feed directly into Proving Grounds. The semifinals and finals of Proving Grounds will be played on LAN.
- Given our refocus and further investment into building out Proving
Grounds and Amateur tournaments next year, Scouting Grounds will not
return in 2022.
- We’re launching Champions Queue — an exclusive matchmaking system
with games hosted on a west coast server for high-skill players
serious about improvement.
With the 2022 LCS season less than two months away, we’d like to provide our fans a first look at format changes across LCS, Academy and Amateur competitions. These adjustments were implemented in part based on robust feedback from both our franchise organizations and the LCS Players Association.
Broadly speaking, we recognize that constant experimentation with different formats over the years can be taxing on all parties for many reasons. With that in mind, we will be giving these changes room to breathe during 2022 and beyond. While no league system can be completely set in stone or impervious to necessary adjustment, we do not plan on making significant changes to the LCS, Academy and Amateur competitions for the foreseeable future.
LCS
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The 2022 LCS Season will begin on January 14 with the LCS Lock In Tournament. Lock In was a major success in 2021, and its structure will remain unchanged in 2022 — all 10 LCS teams will battle through groups and bracket stage for the Lock In trophy, $150,000 and bragging rights. To begin the Lock In Tournament, 2021 LCS Championship finalists 100 Thieves and Team Liquid will draft teams into their groups for a single round robin. Unlike 2021, the entire Lock In tournament will be held on LAN at the LCS Studios, with the final set for January 30.
Both the LCS Spring and Summer Splits have been streamlined to eight-week double round robins, with five games played on Saturday and Sunday. During LCS Super Weeks, five additional games will be played on Friday. Broadcast days will start at 12pm Sunday, 1pm on Saturday and, during Lock In and Super Weeks, 2pm on Friday, with games starting on the half hour (all times PT). Regular season records will no longer carry over from Spring to Summer Splits. We believe that reducing the number of regular season games will help combat player burnout while delivering more meaningful matches for our fans. Additionally, the earlier start times will help our east coast and European fans.
The LCS Spring Playoffs will stay limited to six teams, with the winner qualifying as the North American representative for the Mid-Season Invitational. The playoff format will stay the same — double elimination for the top four seeds, single elimination for seeds five and six — but the first seed will be able to choose either the third or fourth seed as their Round 1 opponent. NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas will host the lower bracket final and grand final with fans in attendance on April 23-24.
In order to give our MSI representative more of a break between tournaments, we’re pushing back the start of Summer Split by one week. We’re also adding another week-long break between the end of the regular season and the LCS Playoffs. The top eight teams from the Summer Split will qualify for the LCS Playoffs, where we’ll crown a domestic champion and determine North America’s three Worlds participants. In addition to playoff byes for the first and second seed, the first seed will be allowed to choose which side of the bracket to play through at the conclusion of Week 9. We plan on revealing the location of the LCS Championship Weekend in the months to come.
Academy and Amateur
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Building on the progress made in 2021, we’ll be improving and expanding upon the existing Academy and Amateur format. Academy Spring and Summer Splits will be double round robins with best-of-two matches, a total of 36 games for each team every regular season. Academy matches will be played on Thursday and Friday, shifting to Wednesday and Thursday during LCS Super Weeks. A third party will operate two simultaneous Academy broadcast streams — one on their channel and the Riot-owned Academy channel. Instead of holding Academy Playoffs, which felt extraneous in the wake of Proving Grounds, we’ll be seeding all 10 Academy teams directly into Proving Grounds based on regular season record and eliminating Academy Playoffs entirely.
The Amateur competitive circuit will be consolidated into two tournaments that run alongside each Academy split. Amateur games will be played on Monday and Tuesday, and will be broadcast on the Academy and broadcast partner’s channels. Beginning with an open swiss qualifier, the top 16 teams will advance to the main tournament. Those 16 teams will be sorted into four GSL Groups, of which the top eight will qualify for playoffs. Playoffs will be a single elimination, with points awarded based on overall performance. The top 10 Amateur teams across the two tournaments will qualify for Proving Grounds.
As the culmination of both Academy and Amateur competitions, Proving Grounds will commence at the conclusion of each split. To start, the bottom four Academy seeds will face the bottom four Amateur seeds in a single elimination best-of-three play-in to the Proving Grounds main event. The 16-team main event will stay the same as 2021 — double elimination best-of-threes, leading into finals played on LAN. Every Proving Grounds match will be broadcast on the Academy channel, and fans will be able to get all the latest Academy and Amateur news by following the new [@PathToLCS][1] Twitter account.
Upgrading Proving Grounds, bolstering Academy with more resources, refining the Amateur circuit — these improvements are all indicative of our refocus and further investment into Academy and Amateur infrastructure. It’s critical that we maintain strong, effective avenues for North American talent to develop, and we’re placing a high priority on executing these new changes. Due to that prioritization, Scouting Grounds will not return in 2022 as we redirect that event’s support into the efforts we’re making elsewhere in the ecosystem.
[1]: https://twitter.com/pathtolcs
On The Horizon…
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For years, we’ve heard and respected the criticism leveled against the North American solo queue environment. It’s been a frequent pain point cited by pro players and aspiring amateurs as an obstacle to their growth. In 2022, we’re excited to introduce an initiative that, while not a complete solution, represents a significant step forward in addressing the issue.
Called Champions Queue, this exclusive matchmaking system hosted on a west coast server will be accessible only to high-skill players who are serious about improvement. Expect to hear more about features and admission criteria in the coming months.
