Well lads, it’s about time for the return of esports. The end of the year is usually a nice break and transfer period for most esports, for me my big 3. LCS, OWL and CWL (now known as CDL). Beginning of the year is easily my favorite time of the year (outside of Halloween obviously, like any cultured human).
January 25th is the beginning of the 2020 Spring Split for the LCS, bringing with it some big changes to the schedule. That’s the purpose of this article, to touch on the massive changes to the schedule, I’ll have some articles in the new future touching on the 10 teams and their roster changes. Including the return of notable organizations Evil Genuises and Immortals this season!
Last year, the LCS ran off a schedule of 2 days of games, with each team playing 2 games for a total of 10 games. 5 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. Last year, Riot decided to try and showcase the Academy league game of the week on Friday, but there wasn’t really much coverage as no LCS teams played that day, and it was just one game. This year, Riot is putting alot more emphasis on the minor league equivalent for League.
The schedule for this upcoming split will be as follows:
- Friday: 4 Academy games (remote) and the featured academy match in studio after, a total of 5 games
- Saturday: 4 LCS games in studio with 1 Academy match after, a total of 5 games
- Sunday: 4 LCS games in studio, with 1 Academy match after, a total of 5 games
- Monday: 3 Academy games (remote) with 2 LCS games in studio after, a total of 5 games
This is a pretty huge change, increasing the number of showcased games from 11 to 20, and a low more coverage for Academy. Personally, I think this is a huge change that is needed. The LCS suffers fiercely from a lack of homegrown talent, or at least homegrown talent being given the exposure they need. The other regions are big on homegrown talent, and it’s leading to them being leaps and bounds ahead of the LCS in terms of talent and performance. I hope this will encourage the LCS teams to take a second look at homegrown talent, I mean look at Licorice. He’s a shining example of what can happen if you foster talent instead of always looking to import.
Licorice, the top laner for C9, has been arguably the best top laner in NA, if not easily top 3, and has competed and quite frankly bested international talent often. Imagine if that was a more common theme, the LCS would be vastly better for it. Sure it’s great to have more games to watch instead of just the 10 (let’s be real, no one really cared to watch the Academy game on Friday), but this is the exposure and stage setting that the up and coming talent needs to learn and get better, especially when it comes to dealing with the spotlight.
Personally, I will happily take more Riot produced content for League, they are the kings of Esports at this point. The production value, quality of production and talent producing it is unmatched nowadays in esports. In my opinion, it rivals that of professional traditional sport events. Sometimes bests it even. If you were curious, some of those catchy beats you hear during analysis and facts being spit out on ESPN, during transitions and such to hype up the teams, that came from the LCS ;). Look up Silver Scrapes, I’m sure you’ve heard it on ESPN before, but it was created FOR League.
If you’ve never watched any League events, what better time than now to give it a shot. I’m fully prepared to convince Deke that he needs to watch it regularly, and I don’t think I’ll need to do much to convince him, it’ll do it on it’s own.
LCS returns on January 25th, be there or be square friends.
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