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Golden Guardians And Evil Geniuses Exit The LCS
- Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses won't compete in the LCS next season
- The LoL Championship Series (LCS) shrinks to eight teams
- The downsizing comes amid dropping viewership of the North American LoL league
League of Legends Championship Series (LCS)
(credit: via lolesports.com)
As announced on Monday, November 20, Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses won't compete in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in the 2024 season. As a result, the league is downsizing from 10 to eight teams.
Riot Games confirmed that Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses are set to exit the LCS, leaving all its players and staff members without a home and free to explore their options during the offseason. The news come shortly after the conclusion of the League of Legends World Championship 2023, which broke viewership numbers and became the most-watched esports tournament in history.
However, while League of Legends esports is in the best spot it's ever been, the North American LoL league is a different story. Since Riot Games decided to reschedule all LCS games ahead of the 2023 season, the LCS has experienced a steep drop in viewership, which has led many teams to doubt their future in the league.
But while it was clear that LCS isn't in a good spot, the announcement of Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses exiting the league came as a shock to many.
Two Successful Teams Exit The LCS
Golden Guardians were one of the best-performing teams of the 2023 season, having reached the finals of LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs and placed second in LCS 2023 Summer before missing out on LoL Worlds 2023 after losing to Team BDS in the Worlds Qualifying Series 2023.
Evil Geniuses, on the other side, missed out on LoL Worlds 2023 completely after finishing the LCS 2023 Championship in fifth-sixth place. However, the NA esports organisation has a successful history in the LCS, having won the LCS 2022 Spring Playoffs and the LCS 2022 Summer regular season and even reached the semifinal of the Mid-Season Invitational that year.
Despite the departure of Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians, the LCS won't welcome any new teams to the league, downsizing the competition to eight squads. However, it's important to note that the teams decided to exit the league after being given the opportunity to terminate their team participating agreements.
The teams had different reasons to discontinue their agreements. While Golden Guardians' parent company, the Golden State Warriors, decided to focus its resources on traditional sports, Evil Geniuses' main reason for leaving the LCS is the organisation's ongoing financial struggles, which already forced EG to cut its Dota 2 roster.
With the departure of Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians, there are questions about whether the LCS will change its format to accommodate eight instead of 10 teams. More information should become available before the start of the 2024 LCS season, which is expected to start in January 2024.
