8 Changes LCS Teams Can Make to Improve the League in 2021

After another failure on the international stage, LCS organizations need to make some changes if they hope to improve in 2021.

5. Partner with Collegiate Programs

This has been talked about forever (heck, I’ve talked about it) but LCS teams really do need to use the existing infrastructure in the collegiate scene to help boost amateur play. It would take very little effort on the part of LCS organizations, who could simply reach out to one (or ideally multiple) universities with existing League of Legends teams.

The relationship between LCS team and collegiate team would be mutually beneficial, as the LCS org has a way to develop talent in their system without using a spot on the LCS or Academy roster. The college itself gets support from the org in knowledge (having their coaches and players getting to interact with the LCS team) and infrastructure (the org can use their partnerships to provide PCs and peripherals to the collegiate program). Finally, aspiring pro players have another avenue to just grinding solo queue, one which also could afford them a proper education as they learn to play as part of a team.

Obviously, there is some vetting of the programs orgs would have to do, as some are further along and better-run than others. But I think if an org invested in maybe three or four universities (one on the west coast, one in the central US, one on the east coast, and another in Canada) it would provide a great opportunity to foster the player base growth.