LCS announces major schedule & format changes for 2024 season
Reece Martinez/Riot GamesOther than switching back to weekend game days, LCS Commissioner MarkZ has been tight-lipped about what would be changing in the LCS for 2024. However, it’s since been revealed that there are a lot more changes than we expected.
MarkZ’s new position as the LCS Commissioner was unexpected by most, but not exactly unwelcome. He’s been working in and around the LCS for years, and Mark claimed he’d be making some big changes that he teased in the weeks following his instatement.
Now, those changes have been revealed, and there’s a reason he was keeping things under wraps. Though it’s still best-of-1 matches, there are a lot of things that the LCS is doing that no other league in the world is.
Between new solutions to try and shorten the time between games and some other big adjustments, there’s a lot to take in.
What’s changing in the LCS for the 2024 season?
In a tell-all video released a short time before the season kicks off, MarkZ went over some of the biggest changes coming to the season.
Arguably the biggest regular season change is that matches will always be played on the live patch. Champions queue and stage games have long been stuck on a sanctioned patch, with pro play hesitant to move to the new patch as soon as it comes out.
Now, at least in the regular season, the current patch will be the one pros are playing on. Considering patch days are typically on Wednesdays, pros will have some time to figure out what’s good and what isn’t before game days, but everyone will have to adapt as the game gets updated.
That, combined with a new system meant to halve the space between games by having pre-recorded drafts, has the potential to make the LCS the most streamlined league in the world. And, while we won’t be seeing as much of the analyst desk day-to-day, that broadcast talent will be spending more time creating original content with players so that they’ll still have a presence on the show.
All that said, these two biggest changes will be rolled back come playoffs. The patch will be locked once the regular season ends and playoffs begin, and draft will be done live as it was before to give teams time to prepare their drafts when playing a series. It’s safe to assume the normal analyst desk would resume as well.
The LCS may be sticking with a best of 1 format, but at least they’re making the most of it by heavily reducing the amount of time spent between games and making the schedule very consistent. With only 8 teams in the league this time around working out to only 4 matches a day, LCS game days will be fairly short.
This is why it was decided to have the NACL matches air directly after in an effort to make the tier 2 league more popular. Viewers who are hungry for more pro games will be able to stay tuned and watch Challengers teams duke it out.
MarkZ claimed him and the team would be paying attention to feedback and whether or not these changes are positively received. With the dip in viewership displayed by the LCS last year, it’s reassuring for many to see the production team putting effort into evolving the LCS and bringing NA League of Legends into what will hopefully be a new era of success.
