Updated on June 12, 7:20 p.m. (GMT+8): Added more information on foreseen tradeoffs.
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) started way back in season three, and firmly took root from 2014 onwards as a premier professional esports league.
In its 11th and final year, this marks the end of an era.
In 2025, a new Americas league — one that Valorant esports fans might be familiar with — will merge North America’s LCS, Brazil’s CBLOL, and Latin America’s LLA to function as a single inter-regional league.
Riot Games explains the rationale behind the new Americas league
The first key reason that Riot provided is that there’s a clear demand for inter-region battles, evident during international tournaments like MSI and Worlds.
CBLOL and LLA both post strong engagement, viewership, and fandom numbers, which is a sign of good progress.
“We believe we have an opportunity to combine forces in a new Americas league that will be good for fans, teams, and pros,” Riot Games explained. “In this new proposed model, the LCS and CBLOL would now compete as North and South conferences.”
The new Americas league will follow the synchronized global schedule of all five major leagues — LCK, LPL, LEC, and the new APAC league — in a three-split format.
The splits determine qualification to the new global tournament in March 2025, where there will be one representative from each of the five regions. The top team in split two from both North and South conferences will each secure a slot at MSI 2025.
Finally, Split 3, also known as the Americas Regional Championship, will determine which three teams qualify for Worlds 2025.
The six partnered franchised teams maintain their slots in their respective North and South conferences. One LLA team will be included based on geographical alignment.
| LOL ESPORTS 2025 AMERICAS SPLIT | STAKES |
| Split 1 | Teams compete within their respective conferences. Top performers qualify for cross-conference play where a single team qualifies for the new global tournament in March 2025. |
| Split 2 | Top team from each conference secures one slot at MSI 2025, a total of two Americas teams. |
| Split 3 | An Americas Regional Championship determines the three teams that qualify for Worlds, with at least one team from each conference. |
One “Guest Team” spot is reserved for promotion and relegation through the Tier-2 system. And so in total, there’s eight teams per conference operating over the three-split season.
In essence, these adjustments are geared towards bolstering Riot’s financial sustainability objectives, particularly concerning the Global Revenue Pool (GRP). It’s recognized that this entails a reduction in the number of Tier-1 teams within the LoL Esports ecosystem.
Riot Games plans to unveil further details in the third quarter of 2024.
READ MORE: Best Arena champions in League of Legends season 14 to dominate 2v2v2v2v2v2v2v2
