Which System Works Best: A Review of the Current LCS Structure
At the end of the promotion tournament for the North American LCS, the talk was not as much about which team was relegated and which were promoted, but rather about the system and how Riot operates the challenger scene. Both Cloud9 and Team Liquid had sister teams in the promotion tournament, while Team Liquid’s team was knocked out by Echo Fox, Cloud9’s challenger team won and has gotten promoted to the LCS. However, due to Riots one team per organization rule, Cloud9 will have to sell one of their teams to another organization. This situation has caused many people in the scene to voice their opinions about how the system works and what they would change about it.
The main talk is of changing the way in which Riot operates the league and move it to more of a North American sport league in which teams are franchised. Right now the system operates on a promotion/relegation system in which the bottom teams of the LCS could potentially lose their spot in the league, and the top teams in the challenger series have the opportunity to move into the LCS.
Certain organizations use the challenger series to field a second team to either test out new talent, or give playtime to substitute players. But since Riot does not allow an organization to have two teams competing in the LCS, if one of the second teams from the challenger series gets promoted to the LCS they will have to sell their spot to another organization. Both systems have their pros and cons, but Riot must set the tone for their league and could potentially set the standard for eSports.
League of Legends is one of the few games that operates as a league mainly, compared to games such as DOTA 2 or Counter Strike: Global Offensive that have a series of tournaments they play week to week. The LCS format is run in both Europe and North America as Riot controls both of these leagues. The LCS is comprised of ten teams that play two series against each other. Each organization can only field one team in the LCS and one team in the Challenger Series.
The Challenger Series feature six teams that play one series against the others. At the end of the regular season, the top two teams from Challenger and the bottom three teams from the LCS battle for three spots in the LCS. This system is akin to how soccer leagues are run in Europe but has some differences. In terms of changing this system, Riot has a few options they could choose.
One option is the one that most people in the scene have been calling for. The majority of North American sport leagues franchise their teams, which gives teams certain advantages. Teams that are franchised lock in their spot in the top league and cannot be ousted from the league. The way this would work for Riot is the ten organizations that field teams in the LCS would have a guaranteed spot in the league. This would mean that challenger teams would not have a chance to make it into the LCS unless they outright paid one of the existing team for their spot. The Challenger Series would be made into nothing but secondary teams most likely as teams competing in the Challenger Series would remain there.
The advantages of this system are that the ten organizations have safety in the spots and the guaranteed extra revenue they get from competing in the LCS. These organizations would also have the option of fielding a sister team that competes in Challenger in order to test out new players and judge the form of substitute players. The security of the investment for organizations is positive and we would see fewer organizations disappear because they cannot afford to continue competing. A con for this system is that we would see the same organizations competing in the LCS and that the worst performing teams would still remain in the LCS as long as their organizations can afford it. This seems a very likely option for Riot as it does not cost any extra money and ensures future safety for teams that compete, ensuring League of Legends remains an eSport for years to come. The discussion for this option comes down to financial safety versus competitiveness of the league.
Another option available to Riot is to keep the current system. Advantages for this system is that teams must continually compete for their spots in the top league, and the barrier of entry for new organizations is not very high. This allows new teams the ability to work their way into the LCS if they are good enough. A con for this system is that since eSports is small compared to traditional sports, the financial risk for organizations is much higher because teams that are relegated to the Challenger Series do not generate enough revenue to survive typically.
An adjustment that could be made to the current system is to allow organizations to only have one team in either the LCS or Challenger Series. This would prevent organizations that have a team in the LCS fielding a secondary team in the Challenger Series. This allows more new organizations to enter into League of Legends and any team that makes it into the LCS would not have to sell their spot. This little change would stop some current problems with the system that we just witnessed in the NA promotion tournament.
There is one more option available to Riot that is effective but perhaps unattainable. Riot could change from a two-league system in EU and NA to a three-league system. One league would be the LCS in which the top teams compete for a shot at worlds and the highest level of play would be there. A second league would be the Challenger Series where new teams have the option of making it into the LCS if they are good enough, thus keeping with the current promotion/regulation system. The third league would be one that consists of secondary teams for current LCS organizations. This third league would allow current LCS organizations to field a second team in order to test new talent and try out substitutes, but they would not interfere with Challenger teams that want to make it into the LCS. This solves many of the problems that the current system has, but is a hard option to enact because it would require a lot of investment from both organizations and Riot, money that may not exist currently to fund this kind of system.
Whatever Riot chooses, they must think over their options carefully. Multiple experts have voiced their opinions and this is becoming an increasingly important topic of discussion in the scene. Riot has the potential to set the standard for eSport leagues and could define the future of eSports. Will they stick to their guns and keep their system, or adopt the traditional North American sport league system moving forward.
