REGULAR SEASON FORMAT
The regular season will be split into 3 sections of group competition. In weeks 1-3 teams will play a single Round Robin Bo3 against the other teams in their group. Weeks 4-7 will be a single Round Robin Bo3 against teams in the opposing group and then weeks 8-10 will move back to a single Round Robin Bo3 within groups. Teams will play the other teams in their group twice and teams in the opposing group once in the regular season.GROUP DRAFT
In early January, we’ll run the EU LCS group draft, which will determine the teams for each group. Since G2 Esports and H2K gained the highest amount of championship points in the 2016 EU LCS season, they will take seeds 1 and 2 respectively, and be at the head of each group. Groups will be drafted via snake draft, similar to Nemesis draft. There will be a pick order per turn, but the team picking will select a team to go into the opposing group rather than their own. The pick order is explained in the graphic below with A1 selecting B2, B1 selecting A2, B2 selecting A3 and so on until all 10 teams are split between groups.
PLAYOFFS
Playoffs will retain the same format as previous EU LCS splits with 6 teams entering into Quarters, Semis and Finals. Teams will be seeded by performance in their group. The top three teams from each group will qualify for playoffs with the first seeds heading straight to Semifinals. Quarterfinals will see the second seed face off against the third seed of the opposing group, with the higher seed receiving side selection advantage: A2 vs B3 and B2 vs A3.Winners will be reseeded going into the Semifinals to create matches between teams who did not play in the same group during the regular season. If the #2 seed and #3 seed of the same group advance to the Semifinal Round, the #2 seed of that group will face the pre-qualified #1 seed of the other group. The EU LCS Spring and Summer Finals will retain the same format with the 3rd and 4th place match-up and 1st and 2nd to determine the 2017 EU LCS Spring Champions.
PROMOTION/RELEGATION
Promotion/Relegation ensures that only the best teams are able to compete in the EU LCS and provides a pathway for rising new teams and talent to enter the scene. In 2017, we are adjusting the format to make the EU LCS less volatile, while ensuring that a clear aspirational path based on competitive performance remains available for the top CS teams. As such, we are reducing the number of EU LCS teams that enter the promotion tournament from 3 to 2, will keep the number of CS teams that enter at 2, and utilize a double elimination Bo5 format: Win twice - you’re in, lose twice - you’re out.The bottom team of each EU LCS group will enter the promotion tournament. The higher seeded team (based on tiebreaker rules) will be able to pick the CS team they want to face in round 1. Winners of the first round matches play each other, and losers of the first round matches play each other. The teams with 1-1 records will then play each other in a final "decider" match. At the end of the tournament, teams that won 2 Bo5 matches advance into the EU LCS, and teams that lost 2 Bo5 matches are relegated to the Challenger Series. Groups will then be determined by another group draft for the Summer Split.
EU LCS BROADCAST SCHEDULE
We took another look at the broadcast schedule for the EU LCS in 2017. For the past couple of years, the show has been well received on Thursday/Friday, but we’ve also gotten a lot of requests for more weekend shows. As we continue to expand our production, broadcast tech and team behind the scenes, we are able to be more flexible with scheduling and start times. However, certain restrictions in Germany prevent us from having recurring shows on both of the weekend days over prolonged periods. With all those factors in mind, the EU LCS broadcast days will move to Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with some flex shows on Sunday.In regular weeks we will be running two Bo3s per day, for 3 days, and in weeks 2, 7 & 10 we will have additional matches on Sundays. Matches will be broadcast in the afternoon (Berlin time) and we’ll have an update on the exact time when we release the full schedule. Here’s what the broadcast week will look like
