It’s official: there will be a new third international event in the LoL esports ecosystem. Here’s what you need to know.
Image Credit: Riot Games
Riot Games confirmed the new event in their latest update on June 11. While the event’s name and branding are yet to be confirmed, this marks a huge change for the schedule and the entire competitive scene in League of Legends.
According to the release, the new event will slot in at the start of the 2025 season, with one global tournament between all regions. The initial round of the tournament will start with regional play and each of the five regions will qualify for the international round that will take place in March.
The number of regions in the LoL esports ecosystem will also be lowered to five, as the North American and South America will form one single Americas League and other minor regions will merge into a multi-region league.
The five teams in the international round will participate in a round robin format where every region will play every other region in a best-of-series. The top four will then form a bracket, with the winner of the tournament being crowned. According to Riot, the international round will last a total of six days.
With the addition of the third event, Riot is tweaking the regional split structure. Starting from 2025, all five regions will begin with the new international tournament/first split. The second split will then qualify teams for MSI, which is being moved to the start of July.
LoL Esports: Building Towards a Brighter Future
Read: https://t.co/6GJsmearbS pic.twitter.com/aSzqvv3UZC
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) June 11, 2024
As for the third split, there will be a regional championship to crown one season-long champion in every region, making every single regular season match important. The top-performing teams will then qualify for Worlds to round off the year.
After being implemented across different regions across the globe, the Fearless Draft mode is also coming to the regional and international rounds of the new tournament, making the event more volatile and diverse from a champion pool perspective.
That said, Riot said that the winner of the new tournament will not automatically qualify for MSI (the MSI winner will still be given the Worlds slot). Nonetheless, the organizers want to make all global events connected so the first international tournament will affect the seeding for MSI, according to Riot.
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
