Riot Games Reveals Plans to Bring LCS Back Into the Studio

League of Legends Esports has been back in action for almost a month now and the western leagues of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) and the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) have been played remotely amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. With the 2022 LCS Lock In tournament having concluded and the regular split starting tomorrow on 5th Feb, Chris Greeley, Riot Games’ Head of Esports for North America (NA) and interim Commissioner of the LCS announced that the league will make its way back into the studio for Week 1 of the spring split.

This announcement is music to the ears of the League of Legends community which has been wanting to see some exciting LAN action in the LCS and the LEC.

Hybrid model to be followed for Week 1

With the announcement, Greeley revealed that they will be working closely with all the LCS teams to see what works best for all. Given the COVID-19 situation, he noted that a hybrid model will be followed for week 1 of pro play in the league and if a team is unable to make it to the studio, its opponents will also be offered the opportunity to compete remotely.

Chris Greeley wrote on Twitter, “We’ll be bringing back #LCS teams into the studio in a hybrid model for Week 1. Working with each team, we’ll determine if they are eligible to come on-site. If a team isn’t eligible to come on-site, their opponents will be offered the opportunity to play remotely as well.”

He hoped that this was the first step to getting things back to normal and that he was excited to get the pros back on stage.

Status of play in the LEC

Week 4 of the LEC Spring Split is all set to begin today on 4th Feb and the teams will be competing from their respective facilities yet again. At the start of the split, the LEC announced that the teams would be playing remotely and it would assess and review the COVID-19 situation in a few weeks’ time.

With the LCS moving back into the studio, the LEC might review the situation and bring the pros back on stage.

League of Legends’ French (LFL) and Korean (LCK) leagues have already been playing on LAN in the presence of a live audience.

Team Vitality’s mid-laner Luka "Perkz" Perković shared on Twitter that he missed playing on stage, “Watching LFL playing in front of kinda big crowd reminds me of the last time I played on stage in 2019 Worlds. It's been so long ago now, it feels like forever. I miss it.”

The LCS 2022 Spring Split is kicking off on 5th Feb and Team SoloMid (TSM) will go head-to-head against Evil Geniuses in the opening game. Fans can watch the games live on Twitch and YouTube, and also watch the VODs (video-on-demand) on the LoL Esports website.

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