Riot Games recently announced new changes coming to the European and North American League Championship Series. Among the changes listed, the LCS is introducing an arbitration process for specific rulings. Teams will be able to make an appeal for fines of $10,000 or more and judgments that suspend players for one or more games, with an independent third party overseeing the arbitration process. In addition, anti-tampering rules have been extended to head coaches, and the number of LCS teams to play in the Promotion Tournament has been reduced to two.
The European LCS format has changed significantly, as it welcomes the best-of-three format and mimics the Chinese LPL's two-group format. Teams will be seeded into groups and will play twice against teams in their own group (and once against teams from the other group). Due to logistical factors, the European LCS play is set to feature two best-of-three matches per day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The two leagues welcome a prize pool increase ($200,000 in North America and €200,000 in Europe). In addition, Riot Games is exploring the option of adding digital goodies outside of in-game Summoner Icons. They're also attempting to guarantee a minimum of $50,000 revenue (€50,000 for Europe) on top of icon revenue.
Also, the bottom team in each group in Europe and the bottom two teams of the North American regular season will enter the promotion tournament of their respective regions against the top two Challenger teams in a double-elimination format.
