Is Riot canceling the 2023 LCS Summer Split?
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)As the 2023 summer split begins all over the world, questions remain about NA’s top LoL league. Is Riot Games canceling the LCS Summer season?
North America’s League of Legends ecosystem has been thrown into further turmoil since the announcement that Riot Games agreed to remove the mandate that determined LCS teams had to field a roster in the Challengers League (NACL).
The decision caught the LCS Players Association (LCSPA) by surprise, with Executive Director Phillip Aram stating that the association was “lied to” by Riot. “We were told, throughout the process this year, from many people at Riot, that changes were being considered for 2024,” he said in an interview with Travis Gafford. “And that is not what has happened.”
Frustrated at being left out of the decision-making room and seeing their transition proposals for the NACL ignored, the LCSPA called a vote on a walkout, which was “overwhelmingly” approved by the players on May 29.
Never before had the LCSPA been at odds with Riot Games, at least not in such a public way. With the two sides seemingly so far apart, the future of North America’s top League of Legends competition was seriously in danger.
Is the 2023 LCS Summer Split being canceled?
On June 9, the walkout was called off after Riot, the LCSPA and the teams came to an agreement. As things stand, the LCS Summer Split will begin on June 14.
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)Riot Games had delayed the Summer Split by two weeks to give all parties more time to find common ground and avoid a walkout. But as Naz Aletaha, the Global Head of LoL Esports, had made clear on May 30, Riot would not entertain the list of requests put forward by the LCSPA.
In the end, the association had to make a lot of concessions. “While the agreement falls short of our initially stated goals, Riot has agreed to a series of important changes and committed to meaningful collaboration with the LCSPA before making future decisions,” the LCSPA wrote.
For now, at least, North America’s biggest League of Legends competition is not in peril.