Riot chief responds to calls for LCS to merge with CBLOL

Carlos Antunes, the Head of League of Legends Esports for the Americas, has given his take on the chorus of voices calling for the LCS to merge with CBLOL.

As the LCS goes through one of its worst periods on record, amid declining viewership and the loss of some of its most iconic teams, an idea that has gathered momentum in the community is that Riot should consider setting up a league with teams from across the Americas.

This structure has proved incredibly successful in Valorant, where the VCT Americas league, featuring teams from North America, Latin America, and Brazil, was by far the most popular of the three international leagues.

A merger between the LCS and CBLOL, Brazil’s top League of Legends league, has been brought up a lot in recent months, with content creator Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles stating that this possibility has been discussed by Riot as it evaluates the future of NA’s premier competition.

Questioned about that possibility, Carlos Antunes, who took over as the Head of League of Legends Esports in the Americas in August, said that now is not the time for the two leagues to merge, though he did not rule out the possibility down the line.

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“All the possibilities are on the table. We have to consider what is best for the esport and the community,“ he said on the MD3 podcast. “Anything is possible. Is this the right moment? In my opinion, no.

“It makes sense to connect the regions because it develops talent, brings more top teams, more variety, more players… But it’s not necessarily the only solution, and it doesn’t necessarily have to happen now.

“CBLOL is going down a very interesting path. The LCS is reinventing itself in terms of content and competition, and it’s already showing interesting signs of what the show is about.

“When we created VCT Americas, I did not expect that we would have Brazilians, Latin Americans, and North Americans rooting for teams from other regions. This has happened. And we can look at that. But that’s not the LoL model, and I don’t think the time is right.”

Split 2 of the CBLOL surpassed the LCS Summer in all viewership metrics. It averaged 82,188 viewers and had a peak of 328,877 viewers — 7% and 38% higher when compared to its North American counterpart, according to data firm Esports Charts.

The LCS will feature at least one new team in 2024 after Shopify Rebellion acquired the spot that belonged to TSM. According to MonteCristo, Riot has considered the possibility of moving the league away from Los Angeles in order to decrease costs as many organizations are struggling to stay afloat during this period of economic downturn.

Keep track of all the changes and the latest rumors in the LCS and LEC with our off-season rostermania tracker.