League of Legends fans in North America and Europe won’t be sitting around bored for long while they wait for the coronavirus to pass.
The LCS and LEC have announced their plans to return to action in an online setting. The two leagues issued announcements detailing their plans to play out the remainder of their 2020 Spring Splits over the internet in order to keep the league going without a prolonged layoff.
“Last week we had to make the difficult decision to suspend the LEC due to concerns related to the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic…We’ve been working with the LEC teams to evaluate our options for the remaining five weekends of the Spring Split and have decided to move to remote online play,” the LEC said on its official website.
This was echoed by the LCS in a statement of its own.
“We’re pleased to announce the return of the LCS and academy, starting this week with online matches and continuing for the remainder of the spring split. Both leagues will resume with the scheduled week eight matches, although we’ll be shifting the Monday League games to Saturday and Sunday,” LCS Commissioner Chris Greeley said on Twitter.
Last week, the LCS and LEC were suspended in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus. The LCS initially looked to continue playing in a live setting, but without a crowd or press in attendance. This was eventually elevated to a complete pause on the league.
This followed similar measures being implemented by China’s LPL and South Korea’s LCK. The LPL was delayed for several weeks before starting in an online setting, while the LCK was initially played without a live crowd before also announcing plans to transition to an online league.
The LEC stated it will return on Friday, March 20. The LCS will return the following day on Saturday, March 21. Both leagues will return with their previously scheduled regular season matches.
Things won’t be completely back to normal for the LCS, despite the action restarting. The LCS is making two key changes to the schedule to account for the transition.
First, Monday Night League is going away. The games will be folded back into the previous weekend schedule, with all LCS games being played out on Saturday and Sunday. The other key change is the removal of Academy Rush. LCS Academy teams will instead play one another in a series of five games during weeks eight and nine.
Both the LCS and LEC will have their games broadcasted in the usual fashion. Fans can tune in to watch them live on Twitch, on YouTube, or on LoLesports.com.
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