The LCS is reportedly moving back to best-of-three series from the 2024 Summer Split regular season after six and a half years of best-of-one play for the North American League of Legends competition.
The format change, which was first reported by League content creator Travis Gafford in a YouTube video on April 17, would bring NA’s premier league in line with China’s LPL and Korea’s LCK competitions—the two titanic League regions have never shifted away from Bo3s. The last time the LCS had a similar format was in the 2017 Summer Split, when TSM won its third consecutive domestic title.
This move won’t add many more play days to the NA League competition, however, with Riot Games shifting the regular season to a single round-robin before moving into the 2024 postseason. Playoffs are expected to stay as best-of-fives, which has been the case since the LCS began in 2013.
Some League fans were hoping any big best-of-three change would also see the LCS adopt China and Korea’s week-long matchday schedule, but Riot seems relatively eager to avoid stretching play across too many days.
Despite the (technically) lower number of matches, LCS viewers are already declaring the impending change “absolutely massive” for the region. Many see the shift as a “big win for fans who are actually fans of teams,” while others said they were happy with the direction commissioner MarkZ is taking the league. Overall, the reported news has been welcomed with open arms by the wider community.
There is one small caveat that Gafford added in his April report; there will also be a two-week break boiled into the 2024 Summer Split schedule, this time for the 2024 Esports World Cup. This short break will work in a similar manner to the Spring gap, which was necessitated by Riot’s professional VALORANT circuit using the NA competition’s dedicated Los Angeles facilities.
This decision is far from surprising, with LCS commissioner MarkZ suggesting as early as February this year that things were already in motion for an NA format change. At the time, the league boss admitted it’s “what fans want to see.”
Dot Esports expects Riot to formally announce these changes this week.
Update April 17, 7:34pm CT: Riot has yet to officially unveil the pivot, but a quickly-deleted rulebook update appears to have confirmed the change.
