TL;DR:

• LCS starts on Jan 25 and Academy on Jan 24
• LCS games will be on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays
  • We’re introducing Monday Night League, featuring two marquee LCS matchups of the week and kicking off at 5:30 PM PT  
• Academy games will be on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays
  • Academy Rush, a new show, will air on Fridays at 5PM PT and will feature 4 Academy games played simultaneously and the 5th and final game shown in full
• We’ve updated the LCS Playoffs format for Spring and Summer, taking place over 4 weeks 
• Academy Playoffs format has been updated for Spring Split
• The 3 LCS teams will qualify for Worlds 2020 via the new LCS Summer Playoffs instead of the old path of Regional Qualifier and Championship Points

We ended last year on a high with the news that the LCS is the third most popular major sports league among 18-34 year olds in the US.  We’ve been busy preparing for the upcoming competitive season and excited to share some of what we’ve been working on with all of you.

Schedule Updates: More days of LCS and Academy

LCS

During the regular season, LCS will be expanding to 3 days a week with games on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays at the LCS Studios. Each Saturday and Sunday, there will be 4 LCS games followed by an in-studio Academy game. 

Mondays will feature the 2 marquee match-ups of the week. We’re calling this new broadcast night Monday Night League. Before Monday Night League games, we’ll be broadcasting 3 Academy games live from the LCS Studios. 

ACADEMY

Similar to the last split, Academy will have 5 remote games on Fridays during the regular season. However, we’ll be changing the broadcast format to feature multiple games at once and calling this new show Academy Rush.  Academy Rush will feature shoutcasters and analysts jumping between all of the Academy action to show you the biggest plays and highlight moments from all 4 games followed by a final and 5th game shown in full. 

Academy Rush ensures you don’t miss a single big moment from Academy and helps you track upcoming talent in NA in a format that makes it easy to keep an eye on the stars of tomorrow. It can be a big time commitment to watch all 10 Academy games in a single week across multiple channels on top of the LCS broadcast. We hope debuting this new broadcast format will allow LCS fans to easily keep up with all the Academy action on a single channel. 

For Academy players, gaining stage experience is a key step towards a starting spot on an LCS roster. In Summer 2019, organizations really benefited from giving their Academy teams valuable stage time after LCS matches on Sundays – with this in mind we decided to take it one step further and expand stage time for the Academy teams by featuring one Academy game after the LCS matches on the weekend. On top of that, 3 Academy games will be played on-stage every Monday. Through these changes, every Academy team will have an opportunity to play on stage every week. 

Format: LCS Playoffs and Worlds qualification changes 

Throughout 2019, we continued to analyze and evaluate both the LCS and Academy formats to meet the goals of the League. For the 2020 Season, we made some changes to the Playoff formats and how teams qualify for the World Championship. Every format has trade-offs but the new Playoff formats should more consistently lead to the best teams ending up at the top while still leaving open the possibility for a miracle run. Critically for all of us fans, we’ll get to see the top teams play more marquee matches than ever before.

LCS

• Regular Season: LCS will continue to operate on a 2-split format with a 9-week regular season and Best of 1s. 
• Playoffs: The LCS format will be changing for Playoffs, which will take place over 4 weeks with the specific format changing between Spring and Summer.

Spring Playoffs

At the conclusion of the Spring Split regular season, the top six teams from the regular season will advance to a Best of 5 bracket. 

Here’s how the new Spring Playoffs format works:

• First Round – In the First Round of the Winners Bracket, the first seed will choose to face either the third or fourth seed in Match A1. The second seed will play the third/fourth seed which has not been chosen in Match A2. The winning teams will advance to the Second Round of the Winners Bracket. The losing teams will drop to the Losers Bracket to play Matches X1/X2, where the fifth and sixth seeds will be waiting. The winners of Matches X1/X2 will proceed to Match Y1 for the Second Round of the Losers Bracket. The losers of Matches X1/X2 will be eliminated at fifth and sixth place.
• Second Round – In the Second Round of the Winners Bracket, the winners of Matches A1/A2 will face each other in Match B1. The winner will proceed to the Finals (Match C1) and the loser will drop to Match Z1 in the Losers Bracket, where they will face the winner of Match Y1. The loser of match Y1 will be eliminated in fourth place.
• Finals Weekend – The Finals Weekend will begin with Match Z1. The winner of this match will proceed to the Finals. The loser of Match Z1 will finish in third place. The loser of the Finals will finish in second place. The winner of the Finals will be crowned the 2020 LCS Spring Champion.

The winner of the 2020 LCS Spring Finals will advance to the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational. 

Summer Playoffs

The top 8 eight teams from the regular season will advance to Playoffs where we transition to a Best of 5 bracket. 

Here’s how the new Summer Playoffs format works:

• First Round – In the first round of the Winners Bracket, the third seed will play the sixth seed in Match A1. The fourth seed will play the fifth seed in Match A2. The loser of match A1 will play against the seventh seed in Match W2 in the Losers Bracket. The loser of Match A2 will play against the eighth seed in Match W1. The winners of Matches W1/W2 will proceed to Matches X1/X2 respectively in the Second Round of the Losers Bracket. The losers of Matches W1/W2 will be eliminated at seventh and eighth place.
• Second Round – The first seed will choose to face either winner of Matches A1/A2 in Match B1. The second seed will play the winner of Matches A1/A2 which has not been chosen in Match B2. The winning teams will advance to Match C1 in the Third Round of the Winners Bracket. The losing teams will drop to Matches X1/X2 in the Second Round of the Losers Bracket. The winners of Matches X1/X2 will proceed to Match Y1 in the Third Round of the Losers Bracket. The losers of Matches X1/X2 will be eliminated at fifth and sixth place.
• Third Round – In the Third Round of the Winners Bracket, the winners of Matches B1/B2 will face each other in Match C1. The winner will proceed to the Finals (Match E1) and the loser will drop to Match Z1 in the Losers Bracket, where they will face the winner of Match Y1. The loser of match Y1 will be eliminated in fourth place.
• Finals Weekend – The Finals Weekend will begin with Match Z1. The winner of this match will proceed to the Finals. The loser of Match Z1 will finish in third place. The loser of the Finals will finish in second place. The winner of the Finals will be crowned the 2020 LCS Summer Champion.

The top three teams from 2020 LCS Summer Playoffs will advance to the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. As such, there will no longer be a Regional Qualifier or Championship Points. 

During LCS Playoffs, games will take place on Saturdays and Sundays in Spring. However,  broadcast days will expand for Summer Playoffs to accommodate the additional matches. We’ll have more information on the Summer Playoff broadcast schedule closer to Summer Split. 

ACADEMY

• Regular Season: Academy will continue to mirror the LCS and operate on a 2-split format with a 9-week regular season and Best of 1s. 
• Playoffs: For Spring, Academy will feature the top six teams from the regular season advancing to Playoffs. During Playoffs, matches will transition to a Best of 5 bracket with the top two teams receiving byes to Quarterfinals.  More information on the Academy Summer Playoffs will be available closer to the start of Summer Split. 

During the Academy Playoffs in Spring, games will take place on Thursday  and Friday.

How to Watch: Dates, Start times, and where to watch

Key Dates

LCS

• Spring Split Start Date: Saturday, January 25
• Spring Split Regular Season: January 25 – March 22
• Spring Playoffs: March 28 – April 19
  • Round 1 Winners: March 28-29
  • Round 1 Losers: April 4-5
  • Round 2: April 11-12
  • Finals: April 18-19
• Summer Split Start Date: Saturday, June 20
• Summer Split Regular Season: June 20 – August 16
• Summer Playoffs: August 20 – September 13
  • Round 1: August 20-23
  • Round 2: August 27-30
  • Round 3: September 5-6
  • Finals: September 12-13

ACADEMY

• Spring Split Start Date: Friday, January 24
• Spring Split Regular Season: January 24 – March 22
• Spring Playoffs: March 26 – April 10
  • Quarterfinals: March 26-27
  • Semifinals: April 2-3
  • Finals: April 9-10

Start Times

During the regular season, games begin at:

• Fridays at 5:00 PM PT – Academy Rush 

• Saturdays at 2PM PT – LCS and Academy 
  • Pre-show coverage at 1:30 PM PT

• Sundays at noon PM PT – LCS and Academy 
  • Pre-show coverage at 11:30 AM PT

• Mondays at 5:30 PM PT – Monday Night League and Academy 
  • Academy games at 2:00 PM PT
  • LCS pre-game coverage at 5:00 PM PT

Where to Watch

LCS

• Watch.lolesports.com
• twitch.tv/LCS
• youtube.com/lolesports

ACADEMY

• Watch.lolesports.com
• youtube.com/lolesports

We’ll update this post with the Twitch channel to watch for Academy Rush games. VODs will be uploaded for all simultaneous matches during Academy Rush on YouTube. Academy teams will also be able to co-stream their Academy Rush games. 

Match Schedule

We’ll release the rest of the Spring Split regular season match schedule by the end of the week. If you follow your favorite team on social media, you may get an early preview of their Spring Split schedule. 

Flex scheduling will continue to be used for weeks 5-9 of the LCS and Academy regular season. 

LCS Regular Season Tickets: Come to the LCS Studios

Tickets to watch games at the LCS during the 2020 Spring Split regular season are only available for Saturdays and Sundays at the LCS Studios. Monday games will continue to be held in front of a live audience but tickets are not available for public sale. 

Head over to the LCS Tickets page to purchase your regular season tickets starting tomorrow (Thursday, January 9) at noon PT. We’ll be updating our LCS Studios guide to plan your visit before early next week. 

Don’t miss the debut of Academy Rush on Friday, January 24 at 5PM PT and Opening Day of the LCS with Cloud9 vs. Team Liquid on Saturday, January 25 at 2PM PT.