League of Legends esports will see big changes in 2025 for those looking to follow the action—and it’s looking better than ever for bettors thanks to a new international event that offers even more moments of mayhem and intense matches.
Here are the biggest changes coming to LoL esports next year.
Third International Event
At the start of the 2025 season, the format will change to make room for a third international event. This tournament will take place in March after an initial first split. The results from that split will allow the top teams from each region to compete at the international event, which currently has no confirmed name or branding.
“As a season-start event, the new tournament/split will allow pros and fans to see everything the new in-game League of Legends competitive season offers. We expect to use this event annually to experiment with different competitive formats and inject exciting innovations into our early-season competition,” Riot wrote in a press release.
The results from this tournament will seed the Mid-Season Invitational.
Fearless Draft
The new tournament will feature something called Fearless Draft, which effectively bans champions that were picked in prior games in the series. This will help shake up matchups and create more variety in the champions we see on stage.
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This is a big change for oddsmakers and bettors alike. It will be increasingly important to check which champions each pro excels at to better predict their performance in an upcoming match and be ready for interesting team compositions that may lead to new strategies and various outcomes.
New Split Structure
The regional split structure is being changed to make room for the new international event. All regions will begin with the first split and the international tournament. Then, they will have a second split that will qualify teams for MSI, which will be moved a bit later into the year to around July. The third and final split will culminate with a Regional Championship to crown a season-long winner in each region. This will lead to Worlds, the biggest event of the year.
New Multi-Regional Americas/APAC Leagues & Guest Team Slots
To increase the competitiveness and stakes of each regional league, it looks like there will be a lot of restructuring of each region.
Americas
The LCS and the CBLOL will be combined and compete as North and South American conferences. Each conference would have six existing partnered teams, integrate one team from the LLA, and then reserve one guest team spot for promotion and relegation through the Tier 2 system. This would create eight teams per conference.
- Split 1: Teams would first compete within their respective conferences, with top
performers qualifying for cross-conference play, where a single team will qualify for the new global tournament - Split 2 For MSI, the top team from each conference would secure one slot, a total of two Americas teams
- Split 3 An Americas Regional Championship would determine three teams advancing to Worlds, with at least one team from each conference
Asia-Pacific
There will be a brand new league in 2025, inspired by the excitement of watching Japanese and Oceanian teams compete against one another in past years. The top teams from Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, Japan, Oceania, and the rest of Southeast Asia will be represented in this eight-team league.
The first lineup of guest teams competing in the league next year will be determined by the results of the 2024 PCS and VCS Summer Split Playoffs, meaning each team from every region has a chance to secure a spot.
“LoL Esports is experiencing several positive, momentum-building trends. Recent changes to our international event formats have created higher stakes and better cross-regional matchups, and they’ve clearly been well-received by our players and fans, as evidenced by the viewership increases and sentiment research from Worlds 2023 and MSI 2024,” Riot stated. “We believe changes outlined here will result in a more competitive and entertaining sport for fans and a more sustainable business model for our teams and Riot Games.”
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Abios’ Take on the changes to LoL esports
League of Legends is an ever-evolving game with new patches, champions and tournament formats each year. The esports scene was switched for Worlds 2023 with a widely popular Swiss stage and increased co-streaming, adding to the excitement and providing record-breaking viewership numbers.
If there’s something Riot Games has done well in terms of LoL esports over the years, it has been to dare to innovate and try new and exciting features to grow the scene. We believe these changes are right in the time as Riot has been able to try the three-big-event format with VALORANT in the past, and more content is only poised to grow the circuit and potential viewership during the year.
As for Abios, we continue to monitor the ecosystem and leagues to provide the fastest and most accurate data and predictions for our partners. We recently got access to official real-time data through GRID for League of Legends and VALORANT, so check out the details here. Or read about our offering here.
