On June 11, 2024 at 15:00 UTC, Riot Games reveiled the major structure of the upcoming reformed LoL Esports ecosystem, starting from 2025 Season[1].
History[]
Previous merge of competitive regions[]
With the seperation of Vietnam Region as a independent region since 2018 Season, there were 14 LoL esports competitive regions across the world, reaching the maximum.
Since 2019 Season, Latin America North and Latin America South regions were merged into a single Latin America region.
Since 2020 Season, the "Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau" region was merged back to Southeast Asia region, forming "Asia Pacific" region.
On Febuary 24, 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, severing the geopolitical situation within CIS region as well as between Russia and western countries, forcing operation of CIS region came to a halt.
Since 2023 Season, former Europe region was expanded to include MENA region, Turkey region as well as the defunct CIS region, forming "Europe, Middle East and Africa" region. Also, Oceania region was placed under PCS structure.
Since 2024 Season, Japan region was also placed under PCS structure. As of June 2024, LoL esports ecosystem has 8 top-tier competitive regions, each sending representatives to international touraments. Under Asia Pacific region is three subregions, sending their representatives to PCS Playoff.
Field tests of new competitive structure[]
China[]
LDL, secondary league in China region, implemented a new draft mode called "Fearless Draft" in July 14, 2022, the first competitive day of Round Robin 2 of LDL 2022 Summer Season. In LDL version of "Fearless Draft", teams are not allowed to pick champions they have played in the previous games of a series, while champions picked by one team do not affect possible picks for its opponent.
LDL 2023 implements a preliminary version of 3 splits competitive year structure. LDL 2023 Split 1, with Placements, Replacements 1 and Playoffs included, covered Feburary and March. LDL 2023 Split 2, with Replacements 2 and Playoffs included, were played from April to early June. Split 3 was played from early June to early July, while Grand Finals was played during the next month. It should be noted that LDL 2023's schedule was altered by scheduling requirement for Worlds 2023, 2022 Asian Games and ASCI 2023.
LPL 2024 Summer Placements implements "Fearless Draft", making LPL the first primary league to implement a new deaft mode since 2017.
EMEA[]
LEC 2023 implements another preliminary version of 3 splits competitive year structure. LEC 2023, as well as LEC 2024's schedule was altered by scheduling requirement for MSI, which was still placed in May. Statstics of LEC 2024 Winter Season was cited by John Needham, President of Esports at Riot Games, as a "success" in exploring new business model[2].
North America[]
"Fearless Draft" was implemented to NACL, secondary league in North America region, since NACL 2024 Spring Season. The "Fearless Draft" in NACL is different than LDL: picked champions are not allowed to be picked again by either team, and should a fourth game being played in a BO5 series, Ban-Phase 2 will be skipped. If a fifth game being played, there would be no Ban-Phase for Game 5.
Korea[]
"Fearless Draft" was implemented to LCK CL, secondary league in Korea region, since LCK CL 2024 Summer Season. The "Fearless Draft" in LCK CL is slightly different than NACL: should a fifth game being played in a BO5 series, that game will be reverted to Tournament Draft.
Major Changes at global level[]
Further merging of competitive regions[]
Starting from 2025 Season, there will be 5 top-tier competitive regions across the world: China, Korea, "Europe, Middle East and Africa", Americas and "Asia Pacific".
Merger of NA, LA and Brazil regions[]
The subregions of Latin America region, Latin America North and Latin America South, will be merged with North America region and Brazil region respectively. LCS and CBLOL will be the "North" and "South" conferences of a new pan-Americas league, each conference consisting 6 teams from LCS or CBLOL, 1 team from LLA, and 1 "Guest team" spot for promotion and relegation through the Tier-2 system.
Creation of a new top-tier league in APAC region[]
A new top-tier league with 8 teams will be created in APAC region, based on Playoffs performances of both PCS and VCS. This will effectively release PCS from acting as a "mixed" league lying between global competitions and Oceania or Japan subregion while having its own teams, talents and fangroups. Additionally, VCS will be placed under the new APAC league's structure as well. The model of hybird league with both franchises and promotion series will also be implemented there.
LOL Competitive Regions and Subregions since 2025[]
- Korea [KR], comprises Republic of Korea only with no subregion
- China [CN], comprises the mainland part of People's Republic of China only with no subregion
- Europe, Middle East and Africa [EMEA], comprises following subregions:
- Balkans - EBL - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Kosovo
- Benelux - ESLOL - Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands
- Greece - GLL - Cyprus, Greece
- Czech and Slovakia - HM - Czechia, Slovakia
- Middle East and North Africa - AL - Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates
- Commonwealth of Independent States - LCL - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
- France - LFL - France, Monaco
- Portugal - LPLOL
- Northern Europe - NLC - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Malta
- Italy - LIT - Italy, Holy See (the), San Marino
- Germanosphere - PRM - Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland
- Spain - SL - Spain, Andora
- Baltics and others - UL - Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Israel
- Turkic - TCL - Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
- Americas [AM], comprises following subregions:
- North America - ANC and NACL - United States, Canada
- Latin America North - ANC and LRN - Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia
- Latin America South - ASC and LRS - Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay
- Brazil - ASC and CBLOL Academy
- Asia Pacific [APAC], comprises following subregions:
- Southeast Asia - PCS - Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines
- Vietnam - VCS
- Japan - LJL
- Oceania
Teritary International Event[]
A teritary international event will be played alongside MSI and Worlds, planned to be played from January to March, with international round being played in March with the duration of six days.
The new event's regional round will also act as Split 1 of each region. The international round will consist two sections: Groups with round robin Bos and 4-team Brackets.
Riot Games plans to implement new competitive formats for this new event every year and a version of "Fearless Draft" will be implement first, in 2025 Season.
New Split Structure[]
All regions will begin with the new international tournament/first split. A second split then will qualify teams for MSI, which will move later in the calendar to roughly the beginning of July. The third and final split in each region will culminate with a Regional Championship to crown one season-long champion in each region.
International Event Slots[]
Each region would have one slot at the aforementioned new event (5 total teams), two slots at MSI (10 total teams), and three slots at Worlds. In addition, the MSI Champion and the second best-performing region would continue to earn additional Worlds slots for their leagues, bringing the total number of teams at Worlds to 17. Worlds 2025 would feature Play-Ins as a single Best-of-5 match, with the winner joining the other 15 qualified teams directly in the Swiss stage.
Reducing Tier-1 Teams[]
Riot ackonwledge that LoL Esports ecosystem has too many teams in Tier-1 to support sustainably. The Tier-1 teams will be reduced to at most 61 in 2025, from 80 in 2024 Summer.
Changes at regional level[]
Americas[]
LCS immediately reveals the proposed structure of American North Conference and it's Tier-2 leagues. LCS indicates that NACL and LRN may not merge; Instead, a sub-regional playoff will be played between represetatives from NACL and LRN, with winner challenge with current holder of "Guest spot" for the opportunity to participate in the North Conference[3].
On September 17 and 18, LCS confirms the final structure of 2025 Americas League[4][5].
- As revealed before, the America League (Tier-1) will be splited to American North Conference, hosted in Los Angeles, and American South Conference, hosted in Sao Paulo.
- For Split 1 and the new international event, champions of ANC ans ASC will compete for the one seed for the new international event; For Split 2 and MSI, champion from both ANC and ASC will qualify to MSI; For Split 3 and Worlds, champion from both ANC and ASC will qualify to Worlds, and several teams from both conferences will compete for remaining Worlds seeds (one or two if an American team become runner-up of MSI).
- The Americas Tier-2 system will consist 4 leagues: NACL and LRN for the North Conference, and CBLOL Academy and LRS for the South Conference.
- The NACL and CBLOL will stay roughly same as current format, while LRN and LRS will be transformed from LLA qualifiers to fully fledged leagues.
- Tier-2 leagues will use a two-split format that runs alongside Tier-1’s Split 2 & 3, whth Tier-2' s Split 1 feaures Full Fearless Draft.
- Each conference will feature a promotion series each year between Tier-1 and Tier-2, with current guest spot holder and top 2 teams from both Tier-2 leagues in corresponding conference compete for the next year's guest spot. As specially mentioned, current guest spot holder will have an advantage in the bracket but must still compete to re-earn their spot, ensuring no auto-requalification.
- Tier-2 leagues will be fed with teams and players from Tier-3 and lower leagues.
China[]
TJ Sports confirms that detailed plan of LPL 2025 will be announced later within 2024.
APAC[]
On July 19, PCS and VCS reveals the structure of the new APAC Top-Tier league. In 2025, the new league will consist 8 teams[6]:
- 4 franchised teams, which were open for apply during July 12-17,
- 4 non-franchised teams, scheduled to be challenged via a promotion seires every year, further spliting into:
- 2 teams, 1 each for PCS and VCS, from relevant leagues' playoffs, for the best team that are not franchisee,
- 2 invited teams.
LCO, the current sub-regional league in Oceania hosted by ESL Australia, comes to an end on September 20 as Riot decides to "revamp League of Legends esports in Oceania"[7].
The APAC Tier-1 league is named "League of Legends Championship Pacific" (LCP) on Spetember 30. It's Tier-2 leagues consists LJL, VCS as well as "PCS without inter-subregion playoffs"[8].
References[]
- ↑ LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future. LoL Esports staff. June 11, 2024. On lolesports.com.
- ↑ Adjusting our LoL Esports Strategy. John Needham. March 14, 2024. On riotgames.com.
- ↑ LoL Americas League – the new structure explained
- ↑ Americas Esports Update
- ↑ Americas Update: Tier 2
- ↑ APAC Leagues Playoffs with Higher Stakes
- ↑ Future of League Esports in Oceania
- ↑ Introducing League of Legends Championship Pacific