Top amateur LoL teams to compete in Challengers Uprising Summer

The next split of the North American Proving Ground Circuit is right around the corner and will once again include events for amateur teams filled with up-and-coming talent. 

The League of Legends 2021 Summer Proving Grounds Circuit will kick off on May 24 with the first of three circuit events. The event is Challengers Uprising Summer Sprint, where top amateur teams will compete for a chance at challenging the LCS Academy teams later down the road. All teams are ultimately fighting for a spot at the next Proving Grounds event, where the amateur team No Org will enter as the defending champions. 

The event to kick it all off is Challengers Uprising Summer Sprint that will run from May 24 to June 8. This event will be the first chance in the summer split to spot the best upcoming young talents that might be the next big names in the LCS. The best team in the Challengers Uprising Summer Sprint will qualify directly to the Proving Grounds and face off against the most prominent LCS Academy squads.  

The schedule for the upcoming LCS Academy and amateur circuit will be packed with three amateur circuit events each right after the other, with the LCS Academy running alongside those events. For the summer split, amateur teams will be able to qualify directly to the Proving Grounds by winning one of the circuit events, while the remaining teams will gather points throughout the event to qualify for the Proving Grounds qualifiers. 

With this updated format, Riot is rewarding the best amateur teams immediately for a strong performance rather than delaying a potential qualification at the Proving Grounds. This also means that top amateur teams are guaranteed to once again compete against LCS Academy rosters and maybe even snag the trophy. 

North American LoL talent is starting to bloom

After the recent 2021 LCS Proving Grounds Spring event, it was clear that talent in the North American amateur scene is blooming like never before. Previously, the Academy scene was the place to develop talent, and while that’s still the case, many amateur teams have now entered the stage and they are competitive. 

After 100 Thieves entered the amateur scene with 100 Thieves Next, other big organizations such as Cloud9, Evil Geniuses, and TSM have followed and created their own amateur teams. Together with all the Academy teams, the scene has suddenly experienced intense growth and made room for new talent that might never have entered the spotlight without it. 

One of the best examples is No Org, who won the recent Proving Grounds events despite not having an LCS organization backing them up. The players included familiar faces such as Omran “V1per” Shoura and Terry “Big” Chuong, but this time without financial backing. This didn’t stop the team from dominating the Proving Grounds and beating Cloud9 Academy in the final against all odds. 

During the summer split, it’s expected that some of these amateur teams will go toe-to-toe with the Academy teams once again, and some might even come out victorious. 

The Challengers Uprising Summer Sprint will be streamed live on Twitch from May 24 at 6:00 PM EDT. Match days will be every Monday and Tuesday.