Riot Games announced Friday that it will host the North American Scouting Grounds from Nov. 13-19. The NFL combine-like event will give 20 nonprofessional League of Legends players the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of competing at the highest level of the game. These players will have an opportunity to go to boot camp with Team Liquid and Echo Fox of the League Championship Series, with more teams likely to be announced.
Players will be selected on Oct. 31. The four highest-ranked players from each role -- top lane, jungle, mid lane, AD carry and support -- on the North American-ranked ladder will receive invites to the event.
In its announcement, Riot Games said it hopes to give unnoticed players the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of starting spots in either the professional League Championship Series or the amateur League Challenger Series. Players who have played more than two games in either league will be ineligible to compete in the scouting grounds. Additionally, there will not be an EU LCS Scouting Grounds at this time because, as Riot said, "EU's partnership with the European Regional Leagues (ERL) means that there's an existing system that feeds directly into their Challenger Series Qualifiers, giving exposure to talented young players, and rising stars in local European leagues."
Similar to Riot Games' requirements to compete in either series, Riot will run in-game behavioral checks on each invited player to ensure that none has a history of in-game toxicity, racist behavior or any other red-flag items. Additionally, each player must be 16 years old by the time the 2017 Challenger Series begins and must be a North American resident as determined by Riot's interregional movement policy.
