LCS to expand to 10 teams

Riot Games has officially announced that the League of Legends Championship Series will be expanding to 10 teams. They hope that the additional two teams will be able to bring diversity to the both the North American and European Leagues.

To achieve this, Riot Games will be holding an expansion tournament to find the two teams worthy to play in the League of Legends Championship Series. Losers from the Promotion tournament will be automatically seeded in to the expansion tournament and newer teams will be able to qualify via the slots allocated to the teams in the challenger ladder. The details of the tournament haven't been announced at this time.

Riot Games are also looking to implement a possible circuit point system into the League of Legends Championship Series. The advantage of this allows Riot to implement some weight into the Spring Split, which has been criticized for not meaning much for Worlds qualification. Riot states that they have some concerns about the viewer-friendliness of the circuit point system and that they are discussing this internally on how to proceed.

According to Nick Allen, the League Operations Manager at Riot Games, playoffs will likely continue to be a 6 team format:

Whalen Rozelle, the Director of Esports at Riot Games stated that it was unlikely that Riot will be adapting the blind pick format in the future:

I highly doubt we'll be implementing blind pick in a bo5 series. Teams earn side choice advantage during the regular season and we want that to be an incentive to finish higher in the standings.

Also the team has certain issues with the validity of the format in that it's a much different type of strategic planning that rarely is used during the season - doesn't seem like a great way to end an epic best-of series.

We spoke with a number of managers on the expansion:

Having 10 teams in the LCS is a big step forward. With the high amount of attention Riot has been giving the Challenger scene in the last year, it only makes sense that the size of the leagues in each respective region increases. Talent breeds talent overall on both sides of the spectrum. Challenger teams can pressure strong LCS teams and increase their level of play just as much as LCS teams can increase the level of play of challenger teams. Riot's decision really means that more individuals will be able to accomplish their dreams and be stable enough to dedicate all of their time to the game that they all love.

William Hoag, Curse Academy + LoLPro

I believe its a move in the right direction. There is enough talent in the eu scene right now so expanding to 10 teams is something I see very positive. As for H2k, our goal is still to qualify during the promotion tournament and we are doing our very best to make it happen this time Robin Jedhammar, H2K Gaming

We think this is a healthy development to the LCS, a longer playoffs will hopefully provide a boost EU needs to gain more views and generate more narrative for the games. In the long term 10 teams also boosts the chances of NiP entering the LCS, we are understandably looking forward to this change. However short term, this does not change anything for NiP, our goal is to win, and we will continue to strive at being a top team regardless of the format.Clement Chu, Ninjas in Pyjamas

Image Credits: Riot Games