Riot announces 2020 LCS Spring schedule, new league format

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Published 08/01/2020

Riot Games has shared the format and schedule of the upcoming 2020 LCS season. The format adds Mondays as gamedays, another week to the playoffs, a new format, and more.

The regular season of competitive League of Legends is a bit over two weeks away, and fans of the North American league now have all the details they need for the 2020 LoL Championship Series Spring. The new format introduced a new path towards the 2020 World Championship qualifications as well.

Academy Rush and Monday Night League are new shows for 2020 LCS

Games will be kicking off on January 24 with Academy Rush, a new Friday show that will see four academy games played at the same time, with one final game of the day starting right after. Besides having Fridays dedicated to the 2020 NA Academy League, the academy teams are also getting a time slot after the LCS on Saturdays and Sundays, and three in-studio games ahead of the LCS during the Monday Night League.

Monday Night League is another new show Riot has decided to introduce this season, and this one extends the weekly length of LCS to three days, as they will be played from Saturdays to Mondays.

With these changes, Riot is hoping to make the academy league easier to follow, and give players more opportunity to get a position in a starting roster with the stage presence on Mondays. However, it’s questionable if LCS can keep up the viewership it has over the weekend on Mondays, and if they can’t, how that will affect things moving forward.

LCS Spring Playoffs introduce double elimination, Regional Qualifier removed

A drastic change to the 2020 LCS Spring Split comes with the removal of the Regional Qualifier, as well as Championship Points that gave four teams the opportunity to fight for a Worlds qualification. Instead, the six best teams from the regular split will play in the new structure of Spring Playoffs.

The regular season matches will be best-of-one, but playoffs will transition to the best-of-five. The six teams that qualify will fight through a double-elimination bracket, with the winner being crowned the 2020 LCS Spring Champion and earning a spot at the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational.

A similar structure will repeat during the Summer Playoffs, but with eight teams advancing to the bracket. The three teams that do the best in the new format will advance to the 2020 World Championship. This decision left many fans thinking what the purpose of the spring split is if Worlds seeding is only achievable in the summer.

However, this new LCS structure will give teams more opportunity to try out their academy players in the main roster, and find the best possible synergy with lower risk before the summer split begins. This is a step forward for the region giving a chance to younger and less experienced players to prove they’re worth a slot in the main league, something LCS has been heavily criticized for. Fans will find out if it will be enough for new stars to rise as the season progresses.

A full match schedule, tickets information, and more details about the bracket are available here.

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi

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