Riot Provides Updates About NA LoL Esports Scene in 2025

As confirmed by Riot, the new Americas League will follow in the footsteps of the LoL EMEA Championship and introduce a three-split format. Moreover, the league will be split into North and South Conferences – both will use the same format and schedules but host their games at different venues.

Although held separately, the teams from two conferences will clash twice per season at LAN events, where they will compete for spots at global League of Legends esports events, including the Mid-Season Invitational and the LoL World Championship.

Another notable change included in the new Americas League is a Fearless Draft, first introduced in China’s LDL, allowing for more flexibility and variance in competitive games. The Fearless Draft will introduce a significant rule to the drafting phase where if a team picks a champion, that team can no longer select the same champion for the rest of the series.

Fearless Draft will only be in place for the first split of the season, which culminates with the first cross-conference tournament. On the other side, the second Americas League split will switch back to standard format without the Fearless Draft.

The third and final split, which will kick off after the Mid-Season Invitational 2025, will see games played every week and culminate with a LAN event where the top teams from the two conferences will face off for three spots at the LoL World Championship.

The top team from the Northern and Southern Conference will secure a direct bye to Worlds, while the third ticket will be up for grabs.

Besides introducing changes to the top flight, Riot also has plans for Tier 2 league in the region. Billed as the “cornerstone of our competitive ecosystem”, second-tier competitions will remain in 2025, with a strengthened connection with Tier 1.

Riot stated it is committed to strengthening the connection between the two tiers by offering organisations a one-year slot in the Americas League and introducing a robust competitive structure to promote accessibility and competitive depth.

While Brazil and North America will keep their existing Tier 2 leagues (CBLOL Academy and NACL), the Latin America (LLA) will enhance their current qualifiers and evolve them into Tier 2 leagues – the LRN (Liga Regional Norte) and LRS (Liga Regional Sur).

The news comes following the conclusion of the LCS 2024 season, which marked the final season of the LCS we know. Now, the LoL completive scene shift its focus towards the upcoming LoL World Championship 2024, which is set to begin later this month.