Ahead of the 2018 season, Riot have announced upcoming changes to the EU LCS. The new format is making changes to the way in which promotion and relegation work, as well as what days the competition will be broadcast on.
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In an announcement earlier today, Riot revealed that they’d be making several changes to the EU LCS, the most impactful of which is likely to be the decision to change the format back from a best of one format, from its current best of 3. Their hope is that this will make the time investment feel less of an obstacle to enjoying the LCS, and allow players to engage more effectively with their favourite teams.
To continue helping with that, Riot are removing mid series promotions and relegations. The hope is that this will allow teams to plan and budget for an entire season, rather than disrupting leagues halfway through the year. That change has a knock-on impact on the Challenger Series, which is also being removed to make way for “a new pan-European tournament” involving local country teams. The top teams from those local competitions will qualify for a special European tournament that will run twice a year.
You can read the full announcement, which points even further ahead to 2019, here. The current competitive series comes to an end next week, and will start again in early 2018, with games playing out later in the week..