A lot has changed in the months since the League of Legends World Championship sold out the Seoul World Cup Stadium in South Korea. Let’s take a quick look at the major changes since then.
Same Team, New Name
A number of teams have changed their name this off season, some due to Riot’s new sponsorship rules. Europe’s Supa Hot Crew joined the Meet Your Makers organization while North America’s Curse Academy, Curse, LMQ, and Evil Geniuses have become Gravity, Team Liquid, Team Impulse, and Winterfox respectively. These changes should not effect much in terms of the team’s play, but seeing a name with the eSports pedigree of Team Liquid is certainly exciting for fans.
Same Players, New Team
As with any sport, a number of players have left their former team for what they hope are greener pastures.
Important departures include the long time Fnatic members Cyanide, xPeke, and Rekkles, Curse’s (now Team Liquid) Voyboy, Dignitas’ Scarra and imaqtpie, all of LMQ (now Team Impluse) save midlaner XiaoWeiXiao, and Evil Geniuses’ Krepo.
Noteworthy signings include Alliance’s pickup of Rekkles, Counter Logic Gaming’s signings of Xmithie and ZionSpartan, and Team Liquid’s pickup of Piglet.
New Faces in the League
With the expansion of the LCS, a number of new (and some returning) teams have arrived on the scene. North America has seen the arrival of Gravity (formerly Curse Academy) and Team 8 as well as the reappearance of Team Coast. Europe saw the return of the Copenhagen Wolves and Giants Gaming as well as newcome H2k and Unicorns of Love.
Head Coaches, Championship Points, Automatic Promotion/Relegation, and More
One of the bigger announcements Riot made this offseason was that they would begin offering support to teams to hire head coaches. This will help teams to further improve their quality of play and improve the sense of professionalism in the league. In addition, coaches will be allowed on stage and to communicate with their team during the pick and ban phase of each game, providing them with a more concrete way to impact the games.
How teams qualify for the World Championship has also changed slightly. Teams will earn Championship Points for their placement in both the Spring and Summer split. While the winner of the Summer split will automatically qualify for worlds from each region, the second spot will go to the team that accumulated the most Championship Points from both splits. The third and final spot will be awarded in a torunament that pits the 4 remaining teams that top the Championship Points standings.
Riot has also tweaked the LCS ruleset for the upcoming season, taking into account the expansion of both the North American and European leagues to ten teams. Gone are the superweeks where teams played four games over three days. Instead, seasons have been shortened from eleven games to nine, and each team will play each other team twice, reducing the games per season. Additionally, all teams that reach the playoffs are now safe from relegation, as is the seventh place finisher. Teams that place eighth and ninth will need to play their way back into the LCS and teams that place last will be automatically relegated from the league.
Challenger Series Changes
What I think Riot’s most exciting change for the upcoming season is the overhaul of the Challenger Series. Rather than a confusing tournament format, Challenger teams will qualify into a league that runs parallel to the LCS. Six teams will qualify and play an eight week, double round-robin regular season. The top team from the Challenger Series will automatically qualify for the LCS while the second and third place team will play the eighth and ninth place LCS teams to try to claim their spot in the league. The fourth place team will retain their spot and the bottom two teams will play against teams from the ranked ladders to requalify for the next season. This new system will provide top challenger teams consistent coverage on a weekly basis, with a dedicated broadcast day, allow viewers to get to know the players and the teams, and provide more stability to the scene in general.
CLG Doing “Fine”
North America’s Counter Logic Gaming has had a painful off season in terms of discipline from Riot. It began during the final week of the 2014 Summer Split where the main roster traveled to Korea, leaving a roster of substitutes, headed by team owner HotshotGG to play their final games. A mix up resulted in the main roster not having accounts ready for them once they arrived in Korea. So they would be able to practice, the team borrowed accounts, a violation of Riot’s account sharing ban. While the mix-up mitigated some of the punishment, CLG’s members were fined $1,250 each and banned from competing in Korea’s OGN for two years.
In early December, Riot released a ruling that stated that CLG had negotiated with Scarra while he was still under contract with team Dignitas, a violation of the LCS poaching rules. When approached by Riot, CLG management did not cooperate with the investigation, further exacerbating the issue. Ultimately, Riot fined CLG $10,000 and banned Scarra from acting in an official capacity as coach for the first three weeks of the Spring Split.
The final chapter in this story came a few days ago, when Riot released another ruling against CLG for the poaching of Dignitas toplaner ZionSpartan. CLG management cooperated with the investigation, which mitigated some of the punishment, but were still left with a $2,000 fine. Additionally, CLG’s DoubleLift, who was the player in contact with ZionSpartan was fined $2,500. Finally, ZionSpartan can not participate in the first week of the Spring Split.
Permanently Banned Players See Light on the Horizon
Riot provided some hope to players who have been permanently banned from competitive play when they announced a revision of their Permabanned Player Policy. Riot stated that the goal of the revised policy was to incentivize reform, rather than simply to punish players. To this end, long-term suspensions now come in to types: Indefinite, which are reviewed at the end of the minimum term and require the highest standard of behavior to be lifted, and Fixed, which are reviewed at the end of the term and require a slightly lower standard of behavior.
This new policy means that previously permabanned players Incarnati0n and DarkwinJax will be up for review at the end of the Spring Split.
Conclusion
The number of changes that Riot has made for the upcoming season, as well as their actions to ensure professionalism within the league show their dedication to League of Legends as an eSport. It’s clear that the game has a very bright future ahead.