Hey NA LCS fans! I’m Travis “Riot Simoorgh” Mynard and I’m the lead for 2018 Rift Rivals: NA x EU. When you’re watching the tournament next week, you may notice a lot more changes than just the host region. I’m here to share some of these updates and we hope they’ll improve the experience for both fans and pros.

THE INAUGURAL GRUDGE MATCH

Last year, Rift Rivals was born out of the void that goes by the name Battle of the Atlantic. The event encouraged fans to bask in the glory of their regions as they face-off in the flames of rivalry and set the record straight on which league is greater than the other. Rift Rivals is here to freshen up our interregional matchups: the days of a Pangaea LCS are gone, and with its death came the rise of 13 other regions across the globe. Since then, each league has been chomping at the bit to engage in a tournament of strength with its closest rivals.

Last year, we saw an opening in the schedule. One just long enough where regional leagues could duke it out in an intimate and intense atmosphere that didn’t require the same split-long investment as MSI or Worlds. Rift Rivals wasn’t another highbrow tournament of mastery and prestige where strategy and poise won you the championship. It was a grudge match where regions cheesed, scrapped, and BMed their way to the top for a year’s worth of bragging rights.

Who really won Rift Rivals: NA x EU last year? Was it North America, or just TSM?

OKAY, SO WHAT’S DIFFERENT THIS YEAR?

As previously announced, we’ve updated the format and schedule to address some of the places where our pros, teams, and fans felt we fell short. LPL x LMS x LCK did it right. This year, we are hopping into the same pool. We switched the focus of our format to culminate in a Finals that can only be won on the effort of an entire League. We decreased the number of games in the Group Stage because every team will now play in the Relay Race Finals. These changes make for a much more active, intense, but shorter schedule for teams. This will ultimately lead to an earlier departure of the teams traveling to the tournament with more time for them to recover and get back into the flow of the Summer Split.

We’ve heard this a lot from fans, “What do the pros even play for?” We hate when our teams and pros feel forced to trash talk or push a rivalry that feels inauthentic to them, because if they feel it, we know the fans feel it. If the trash talk comes naturally, great (here’s looking at you, Doublelift), and if not, we’ve done some things to help out and to add the boldness back to the rivalry:

• This year, we have made it a point to surround the event with rivalry as opposed to trying to instill it or force it.
  • We are giving teams the opportunity to spend their time in LA doing what makes most sense for them – whether that’s bonding with other teams from their Region or scrims with NA teams to get a leg up on the competition, and we are partnering with team content creators to help capture this off-the-rift action for fans.
  • The content surrounding the event will be steeped in competition and have several spins on consistent goodies like the Penta, Mechanics, and the Dive
• We have tournaments within the tournament (inception), including a show match to kick off the week, 2v2 side selection matches, and wagers throughout the event between our cross-regional on-air talent.
• To engage more around Rift Rivals, look out for our Lolesports Twitter posts, our completely biased Reddit threads, and our BTS Instagram stories following players and teams.
• We’ve also introduced a new trophy for Rift Rivals (EU LCS can keep the old one even though NA LCS won it).

We can’t wait for the salt, memes, and gasoline to all be poured on the NA LCS Studio. Now is the time to root for your League, your server, your community, and the ones who represent you! This is an intense 3 days that prove anything you can do, I can do better! This is Rift Rivals: NA x EU.

Travis “Riot Simoorgh” Mynard manages the Player Management team for North American Esports. His group focuses on pro player health and wellness, amateur talent support, and league development.