Chris “Riot Commish” Greeley here—I am the Commissioner of the NA LCS and I manage League Operations for the NA LCS and Academy League. I’m here to share some visibility and context of a new pilot program coming to the NA LCS this week.
Starting in Week 7, NA LCS teams have the option to register a second coach (or analyst) onstage during the pick/ban phase (termed a "Strategic Coach") with the Head Coach. The Strategic Coach will be on comms and will be able to talk to the Head Coach and players to assist in pick/ban. Similar to the Head Coach, the Strategic Coach cannot talk to anyone off-stage. This is an NA-only pilot program that will take place for the rest of split (including Finals) and will extend to Academy playoffs when they are onstage.
Why are you implementing this pilot now?
In our ongoing conversations with teams about how we can continue to improve the league, the topic of challenges related to the pick/ban phase were raised. After discussing various options to improve decision-making capabilities during champion selection, teams asked us if it was possible to just add a second person, instead of having to replace their Head Coach.After some internal discussion, we agreed that trying it as a pilot program for the rest of this split (including Finals) made sense. The expectation is that with an additional coach involved in the pick/ban process, teams can develop stronger strategies and better develop their skills around the pick/ban process.
Will we see Strategic Coaches at international competitions? How about other regions?
Right now, this is an NA-only pilot, so it will not extend to international events like Worlds. Before moving forward with the pilot, we were clear with NA LCS teams that this pilot will not extend to international events.We have given visibility on this change to several other regions. Everyone (including us) is interested to see how this limited test turns out.
Are NA LCS teams required to send up a Strategic Coach for every game?
Teams can send up a Strategic Coach sometimes, but are not required to send a Strategic Coach up every time (or at all). We don’t intend to let teams swap this position around during the pilot program, absent some emergency, but will work with our teams for 2019 about how this role should operate if it is determined that this is worth continuing.
What are next steps with Strategic Coach? Will they be added to Lolesports and Global Contract Database?
There are no plans through the duration of this pilot program to add anyone else to the Global Contract Database or Lolesports.com this split. We will be evaluating the effectiveness of this change through the remainder of the Summer Split and will reconvene with teams in the off-season to consider this for the entirety of the 2019 NA LCS season, as well as how Strategic Coaches can best be integrated into the NA LCS.
Resumiendo , a partir de ahora se podran tener 2 personas en el escenario durante P&B , lo que viene siendo Coach y Strategic Coach, asi pueden debatir en directo que composicion es mejor. Para quien no lo sepa normalment los coach se encargan de los entrenamientos diarios y los SC se suelen encargar de preparar los picks y bans para las partidas de esa semana , un claro ejemplo es en la epoca de Giants en CS que Guilhoto era el Coach y Naruterador el Estrategic Coach.
Si esto tuviera buena acogida el plan es que se permita en el resto de regiones para el proximo split
LOLESPORTS
