Over the past several years, Riot Games has typically held 2 international tournaments each League of Legends season, namely MSI and Worlds. Riot has been very successful with this format, elevating the excitement and drama of both MSI and Worlds to extremely high levels. Additionally, this has helped boost the viewership of these two tournaments significantly.
However, the downside of this organization method is that the number of high-stakes League of Legends matches is relatively limited. Although Riot Games has tried to address this by changing the format of MSI to include both a winners’ and losers’ bracket, it seems that this has not been enough to satisfy the audience. Therefore, in the upcoming 2025 season, Riot is likely to make a “turning point” decision for the League of Legends scene to address this.
Specifically, according to revelations from Sheep Esports, starting from the 2025 season, Riot will organize an additional international tournament alongside MSI and Worlds. Not stopping there, this reputable European news outlet also revealed that each major region (LCK, LPL, LEC, LCS) will have at least one representative participating in this tournament. The timing for Riot’s third international tournament is expected to be scheduled between the winter and spring tournaments.
Not only will they host an additional tournament, but this decision from Riot is likely to lead to significant changes in the entire League of Legends tournament system. First, the LCS is likely to switch to a 3-splits format (winter, spring, summer) similar to the current LEC system to accommodate the new tournament structure. As for the LPL and LCK, Sheep Esports has no exact information yet, but they are also considering transitioning to a 3-splits format in the future.
Remember back in the 2013 season (when Faker first started as a player), the LCK region (then known as OGN) also adopted a 3-splits format. This region maintained the 3-splits format until 2014 before reducing it to 2 splits starting from the 2015 season. In fact, Faker’s second regional title was the OGN Winter 2014.
And it is quite coincidental that after about 10 years since the last time the LCK adopted a 3-splits format, this format now has a significant chance of returning. This “turning point” change is likely to bring many high-stakes, exciting matches to the audience starting from the 2025 season. It could even lead to positive changes that help the professional League of Legends community, particularly the LCK, to develop significantly in the future.