LoL Americas League – the new structure explained

LoL Esports

July 25, 2024

Davide Xu

The 2025 season will be a new era for LoL: a new Americas League will be implemented, merging the LCS, CBLOL, and LLA.

Photo Credit: Robert Paul/Riot Games

Americas League – two conferences

Riot Games revealed the new model that will be used in the new year by having the North and South Conferences.

The former will include a total of 8 teams with 6 existing partnered LCS teams, 1 existing LLA team, and 1 guest team. This means that two out of the 8 teams currently in the North American league might leave the LoL scene.

Promotion and relegation

The spot for the guest team would be eligible for promotion and relegation through the Tier 2 system, meaning that NACL and LRN teams would compete to have a chance at the guest spot in the north conference. The southern one will also have a guest spot that will be in contention with the Tier 2 system. The promotion and relegation, however, will only take place once per year.

Building towards a brighter future with the Americas League. #LCS pic.twitter.com/P0ydfl9V0h

— LTA North (@LTANorth) June 11, 2024

How cross-play will happen between the two conferences

While announcing the new Americas league, Riot also revealed a new LoL international event for 2025, making the number of global events increase to three. Considering the newly merged league, the two conferences will have to battle it out to determine which teams will represent the region at the new event, MSI, and Worlds.

A new split structure will also be implemented, with three splits taking place throughout the season, mimicking the one used in the LEC.

According to Riot, Split 1 would send the winner of the cross-Conference play to the new global event, while Split 2 and 3 will at least send 1 team from each Conference to MSI and Worlds, respectively. Unlike previous years, there will be a Regional Championship to determine the season champion. That said, it’s still unclear how the Conference model will determine the third Americas team qualifying for Worlds.

While we wait for more details about the new league, the LCS will resume the Summer split action later this week, starting on Saturday, June 15.