Cover-Credits:
For North American League of Legends fans, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) is one of the most anticipated LoL esports events. The LCS Summer 2023 season is set to begin soon and we’ll see the top teams in the region compete for the Championship and eventually a spot at Worlds 2023. There have been a number of changes in the LCS’s makeup since the Spring season. Let’s look at when LCS Summer 2023 is set to begin and what changes are in store for the new season.
LCS Summer 2023 Start Date
The LCS has not changed its format for 2023 but it has changed the schedules for games. This year games will be on Thursdays and Fridays rather than the usual Saturdays and Sundays which LCS fans were used to. The LCS Summer 2023 will start on 1st June 2023 with the regular season coming to a close on 21st July. The LCS Summer Championship is tentatively set to begin on 27th July and end on 20th August 2023. The top three teams from the Championship will get a spot at Worlds 2023.
LCS Summer 2023 major changes
One of the major changes includes NRG acquiring the entire team infrastructure of CLG. Fans are hoping to relive CLG’s glory days from 2014 to 2016 where the team made it to the finals of MSI (Mid Season Invitational). Most other LCS teams have made some roster changes. The LCS Summer 2023 will also mark TSM’s last split in the North American league before its big move.
LCS Players may walk out to protest the state of the NACL
In other big news with the LCS, several players are considering a walkout to protest against the changes to the North American Challengers League (NACL), the region’s academy league. On 12th May, Riot Games and the LCS removed the ruling that requires LCS organizations to field a roster in the NACL. Following this, all but three LCS teams decided to drop their NACL rosters. The three remaining teams, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid and FlyQuest have been non-committal about their future in the NACL.
The decision to essentially gut the academy league was met with a lot of backlash from the community. According to Mikhail Klimentov of the Washington Post, the LCS Players Association has asked players to vote on 28th May on a walkout in protest of changes to the NACL. “If we have 26 out of 50 of the LCS player willing to do something, I can tell you right now, the league's not running,” said LCS Players Association (LCSPA) Executive Director, Philip Aram. The LCS Players Association has released a five-point ask from Riot:
Riot seems to be moving ahead with the new NACL, releasing a 2023 NACL Summer Split primer today talking about the new teams competing in the NACL. The 10 teams competing in the NACL for a $100k prize pool are the ones in the picture.
