Before the start of the 2020 Spring Split, Riot Games has revealed that the LCS is undergoing some significant changes to its playoff formatting for the year, including a new way to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship that will be replacing the North American regional qualifiers.
Riot said that the LCS will be adopting a similar playoff format to the LEC for the Spring Split. This means that the six best LCS teams will face off against each other in a best-of-five tournament with a losers bracket. Here’s a mock bracket of the Spring Split playoff format:
For the Summer Split, however, things will be different, too. For the playoffs, the top eight teams will move from the regular season to a seeded best-of-five format with a losers bracket. Teams will now qualify from Worlds based on the new Summer Playoffs format and will no longer get a chance via the Regional Gauntlet.
The Spring Split playoffs will begin on Saturday, March 18 with the first round. The second round will be hosted a week later. The third round will occur a week after that and the finals will eventually take place on April 18 and 19.
The LCS might be trying to mirror the success of the LEC by electing to use the same playoff format. It could work since this may help separate fluke victories from true champions and ultimately provide North America with the strongest representatives for the Mid-Season Invitational and Worlds.
Tickets for the 2020 LCS Spring Split will go on sale on Thursday, Jan. 9, while the location for the Spring Finals will be announced before the LCS kicks off on Saturday, Jan. 25.
