2025 LTA season
| 2025 LTA season | |
|---|---|
| League | LTA |
| Sport | League of Legends |
| Duration |
|
| Number of teams | 16 |
| Split 1 | |
| Split 2 | |
| Split 3 | |
The 2025 LTA season is the upcoming inaugural season of the League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA), a Pan-American professional esports league for the video game League of Legends. The league will launch with 16 teams, thirteen (13) of whom are franchised, two guest teams, and one provisional guest team,[a] all playing across three splits in line with the new three-split structure and competitive calendar introduced the game's developer Riot Games starting with the 2025 competitive season.[1]
Notable events
[edit]- On 11 June 2024, Riot Games announced in a blog post titled "LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future" that the League Championship Series (LCS), Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL) and Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) would plan to merge into a Pan-American league that would begin play in 2025.[2][3]
- On 31 October 2024, the League of Legends Championship of The Americas was formed, with the inaugural 16 teams in the league announced that same day.[4]
- 100 Thieves, initially planned to be a regular partnered team coming from the former LCS, also announced on October 31 that they sold their slot back to Riot Games. As such, they would be a "provisional guest team" for the 2025 LTA season, which means they'll not be eligible for relegation but may leave competitive League at the end of the 2025 split.[5]
- On 13 January 2025, Mark Zimmerman, who was the final commissioner of the LCS, was named the first commissioner of the LTA.[6]
Guest teams
[edit]Two guest teams will be competing in the 2025 season - Disguised from the North America Challengers League (NACL) in the United States and Isurus Estral from Argentina. All teams will compete in a promotion and relegation tournament against the top teams from the Tier 2 leagues.
Split 1
[edit]The inaugural LTA Split will begin on 18 January, with the Finals slated for 23 February at the newly renovated Riot Games Arena in São Paulo, Brazil.
Format
[edit]All sixteen (16) teams, eight (8) in each conference, will compete in a Double-elimination tournament bracket in their respective conferences to determine the top four (4) teams each from both the LTA North and LTA South. All matches will be played in best-of-threes. The remaining eight (8) teams will then compete in an eight-team single-elimination playoff bracket, where all matches except the finals will also be best-of-threes and the first round of matchups being cross-conference matches. The finals will be a best-of-five series, with the winner being crowned Split 1 Champion and the lone LTA representative at the 2025 First Stand Tournament.[7][6]
Split 1 will implement the "Fearless Draft" format, which was popularized by China's LoL Development League, where teams cannot pick a champion that they've already played in a series, even if the champion was picked by the opposing team.
The draw for the first round matchups in each conference were held on 18 January 2025.
North
[edit]Venue: Riot Games Arena, Los Angeles
Source: LoL Esports
- Bracket 1
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Advance to inter-conference playoffs | |||||||||||
| Match 1 – 25 January | |||||||||||||
| FlyQuest | |||||||||||||
| Shopify Rebellion | |||||||||||||
| Match 2 – 25 January | |||||||||||||
| LYON Gaming | |||||||||||||
| Cloud9 | |||||||||||||
| Lower Round 2 | Round 3 | ||||||||||||
- Bracket 2
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Advance to inter-conference playoffs | |||||||||||
| Match 3 – 26 January | |||||||||||||
| 100 Thieves | |||||||||||||
| Disguised | |||||||||||||
| Match 4 – 26 January | |||||||||||||
| Team Liquid | |||||||||||||
| Dignitas | |||||||||||||
| Lower Round 2 | Round 3 | ||||||||||||
South
[edit]Venue: Riot Games Arena, São Paulo
Source: LoL Esports
- Bracket 1
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Advance to inter-conference playoffs | |||||||||||
| Match 1 – 25 January | |||||||||||||
| paiN Gaming | |||||||||||||
| LOUD | |||||||||||||
| Match 2 – 25 January | |||||||||||||
| Vivo Keyd Stars | |||||||||||||
| Leviatán | |||||||||||||
| Lower Round 2 | Round 3 | ||||||||||||
- Bracket 2
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Advance to inter-conference playoffs | |||||||||||
| Match 3 – 26 January | |||||||||||||
| Isurus Estral | |||||||||||||
| FURIA | |||||||||||||
| Match 4 – 26 January | |||||||||||||
| RED Canids | |||||||||||||
| Fluxo | |||||||||||||
| Lower Round 2 | Round 3 | ||||||||||||
Split 2
[edit]Format
[edit]In both conferences, teams will compete in a double round-robin tournament, with all matches being contested in best-of-ones. The top (6) teams will qualify for a best-of-five Double-elimination tournament playoff bracket, with the winners in each conference being crowned Conference Champions[7] and qualifying for the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational.[6]
Split 3
[edit]The Americas Regional Championship will be held in a to-be-determined venue in LTA North.
Format
[edit]Split 3 will have a "Pick & Play" format for the initial stages of the split. Both conferences will have a similar format across six (6) weeks of play. The first week sees each team face each other based on the second split results, but after the first and second weeks the lowest-ranked teams pick their opponents. After the third week, a double elimination bracket is formed, with the top 4 teams seeded into the winner's bracket and the bottom 4 seeded into the loser's bracket. This bracket sees the best ranked teams pick their opponents for each of the two rounds.
After those two rounds, the remaining team in the winner's bracket plays in the "Worlds Qualifying Series" for the upper-bracket spot in the Americas Regional Championship and a slot at the 2025 League of Legends World Championship against the best remaining team based on record, with the two remaining sides competing for the final spot for their conference. All games in "Pick & Play" are best-of-threes, with the exception of the final week, which consists of best-of-fives.
In the Americas Regional Championship, the three remaining teams from each of the two conferences compete in a best-of-five Double elimination tournament bracket, with the winners of the "Worlds Qualifying Series" (the first two LTA representatives at Worlds 2025) starting in the upper bracket, with the remaining teams starting in the lower bracket. The winner of the finals will be crowned the LTA Champion and will earn the final LTA slot at the 2025 World Championship.[8]
Notes
[edit]- ^ 100 Thieves is a "provisional guest team", as their franchise slot was sold back to Riot Games. For 2025, they will participate like a franchised team in the LTA, meaning they can't be relegated.
References
[edit]- ^ "LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future". lolesports.com. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ Wilson, Jason (11 June 2024). "Riot Games rolls out consolidation plan, new spring event for League of Legends esports". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ Taifalos, Nicholas; McIntyre, Isaac (11 June 2024). "LCS, CBLOL, LLA unified as Riot takes VALORANT-like approach to LoL esports". Dot Esports. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ Fudge, James (31 October 2024). "Teams, Format for League of Legends Championship of The Americas Revealed". The Esports Advocate. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ Ciocchetti, Cecilia (31 October 2024). "100 Thieves sells League franchise slot while Disguised takes the stage for LTA 2025". Dot Esports. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ a b c "Welcome to the LTA". lolesports.com. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
- ^ a b "What you need to know about the LTA: 2025 LTA Address" (video). youtube.com. League of Legends Championship of The Americas. 14 January 2025.
- ^ "Introducing The LTA - 2025 Explainer" (video). youtube.com. League of Legends Championship of The Americas. 31 October 2024.