Riot axing 2 LCS teams in massive League esports restructuring

Riot Games has announced massive changes to the League of Legends esports ecosystem and one of them involves getting rid of two LCS teams.

The Americas regions will get a huge shake-up in 2025 as Riot has announced it is merging its top leagues to create something similar to VCT Americas in Valorant.

The LCS, Brazil’s CBLOL, and Latin America’s LLA will combine next year to form a new pan-America league. The proposed model will see the LCS and CBLOL operate as two conferences in the mega league, instead of two separate competitions.

“Each conference would maintain six of its existing partnered teams, integrate one team from the LLA based on geographical alignment, and reserve one “Guest team” spot for promotion and relegation through the Tier 2 system, for a total of eight teams per conference,” the Riot announcement said.

The LCS already has fewer teams in the 2024 season than in previous years, fielding only eight rosters, as Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses elected to leave the league by “mutual decision” in late 2023.

President of Esports at Riot Games John Needham said at the time that the move allowed the league to be “more flexible” as the company prepared this restructuring.

The LCS has been waning in popularity in recent years as viewership continues trending down, and it has repeatedly failed to find success at international tournaments.

Reece Martinez/Riot Games

One of the league’s most popular teams, TSM, sold its slot in the LCS in 2023 to Shopify Rebellion, stating it didn’t believe it could win a World Championship by fielding a squad in the league.

Now, two more teams are on their way out from the LCS to open the door for this new league competition.

The teams who will get the axe have not yet been revealed, and it is unclear whether Riot will make that decision or if teams will opt to leave the LCS like EG and GG did over six months ago.

Riot said the reduction of teams from the LCS in this new league was an intentional part of the restructuring.

“Simply put, we have too many teams in Tier-1 to support sustainably. By reducing the number of teams, we’ll be able to focus support from the GRP by ensuring revenues are distributed among fewer teams, thereby increasing revenue per team,” the announcement said.

“This should also help concentrate player talent, making it easier for fans to follow a streamlined ecosystem, and ultimately create more high-quality matches worth your time.”

Whether this will improve the prospects of Americas teams internationally, or help fix the esport’s waning popularity in the region, remains to be seen.