Days after their cancellation, the LEC and LCS have risen from the ashes with a pair of announcements revealing their new online format.
The news was first revealed by the LCS in a post on their official Twitter account. The league broke down their prospective lineup for the remaining two weeks of competition in an accompanying infographic, as well as the Spring Playoffs.
In a later post, further changes to the format were explained: “Both [academy and main] leagues will resume with the scheduled Week 8 matches, although we’ll be shifting the Monday League Games to Saturday and Sunday. In addition to this change, Academy Rush will be cancelled and will be replaced with the five Academy games broadcasted back-to-back for Weeks 8-9.”
The LEC followed suit in a post made an hour later. This was accompanied by a detailed breakdown of the new online format.
In the post, the LEC thanked it’s fans, but also explained why this was a necessary move: “We are touched by the amount of support we continue to receive from our audience and fans. Like us, many of you are also staying at home for the next few weeks and the weekly LEC show provides something to look forward to. Although it will undeniably look and feel different than when it’s produced out of the LEC Studio, we are confident we can remotely produce a show that maintains the essence of the LEC while reducing the risk to our staff and players.”
The return comes just days after both leagues were first announced to be audienceless, and then cancelled by League of Legends developer and organiser Riot Games. The postponements in the wake of the global COVID-19 coronavirus were just two of many event changes which both competitive League of Legends and esports as a whole has faced over the past few weeks.
But even with the European and North American leagues restarting, it’s not the end of the chaos caused by coronavirus. After an impromptu cancellation, the OPL, the Oceanic region’s premier league also restarted. At this point, every region for League of Legends has been affected in one way or another.
Within the new patch just released, a number of changes have been made to increase the number of champions found in the jungle. The next few weeks of games have the potential to be very interesting, with the LEC and LCS returning to operation just in time.
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