LCS: Why Eliminating the Spring Split Makes the League Stronger
By Josh Tyler
The LCS is reportedly preparing to eliminate the Spring Split starting in 2021.
Fans (and players) moaned that Spring Split didn’t matter in the 2020 LCS season, and Riot has apparently listened. Last night, Travis Gafford released a video with some fairly shocking news regarding the structure of the LCS in 2021: the Spring Split is going the way of the Dodo.
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Instead of two splits, spring and summer, LCS teams will play one, long season that will span from January through August leading up to Worlds. There will still be an MSI, with a six-team playoff to determine who the North American representative will be, but instead of crowning a Spring and Summer Split champion the LCS will have a single champion for 2021.
The change also allows Riot to expand the overall number of games to be played, as each team will now play 45 games total (facing the other nine teams five times) as opposed to the two 18-game splits (36 games total) they have now. The broadcast for 2021 will also (reportedly) shift to a three-day broadcast on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
This shift in the league’s format has some obvious benefits, like no meaningless regular season and playoffs, but there are also some under-the-radar benefits that haven’t been addressed. From a larger sample size to evaluate players to the possibility of additional in-season tournaments (which Travis appears to also confirm), here are three ways that the LCS eliminating the Spring Split makes the league stronger overall.