Format for the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) North American Qualifier

Posted on at 6:25 PM by Moobeat
With the online qualifiers concluding last weekend, we are nearly ready for the League of Legends Championship Series North American Qualifier to start up this weekend, Jan 11th through the 13th. In preparation, RiotMarcou dropped off  a post detailing the format for the event.
Continue reading for the full details!

Here is the full post from RiotMarcou, eSports Manager:
"Summoners!

We’re modifying the tournament format for the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) North American Qualifier on Jan. 11-13.

Day 1

  • We’re not using a round-robin format on Day 1
  • This avoids the need for a tiebreaker formula or a lengthy tiebreaker playoff
  • Instead, we’ll run a “dual” tournament (a type of group play popularized in Korea)
  • >In this format, each group of four teams will play until each team has either won twice or lost twice.
  • Matches on this day will be best of 1 game

Day 2
  • The first-place team from each of the four groups will face one of the second-place teams from a different group in a best-of-3 game series
  • Winning teams receive LCS contract offers and join pre-qualified teams TSM, CLG and Dignitas

Day 3
  • The four remaining teams play in a best-of-3, single-elimination bracket
  • Winner receives an LCS contract offer
  • >>Becomes the eighth and final LCS NA team

We will be seeding the teams as following.

Season Two NA Regional Semi-Finalist:
1) Curse

Season Two NA Regional Quarter-finalist:
2) Team FeaR

Partner Tournament Qualifiers (in order of qualification and finish):
3) Meat Playground
4) Azure Gaming
5) Cloud 9 (formerly ex-Quantic Gaming)
6) Dirt Nap Gaming
7) Good Game University (formerly Team Dynamic)
8) The Brunch Club (formerly SSSWL18)

Riot Online Qualifier Semifinalists (in order of seed in Online Qualifier):
9) Pulse eSports (formerly young based god)
10) EPIK Gamer
11) 1 Trick Ponies
12) Team MARN

Riot Online Qualifier Quarterfinalists (in order of seed in Online Qualifier):
13) The Salad Bar
14) Falafel Gaming
15) Tower Dive TV
16) compLexity (formerly heating up)

Teams will be assigned to Groups A-D via “snake” draw (ABCDDCBA). Within each Group:
  • The top-seeded team will face the lowest-seeded team and will advance to face the winner of a matchup between the 2nd- and 3rd-seeded teams in the upper bracket
  • The losers of each matchup move to the lower bracket
  • The winner of the upper bracket game will be declared the top qualifier of the group
  • The loser of the upper bracket game will then face the winner of the lower bracket group
  • >>The winner of that final game will be declared the second qualifier of the group

Following the Group stage:
  • The top finisher from Group A will play the second-highest finisher from Group D
  • The second-highest finisher from Group A will play the top finisher from Group D
  • The top finisher from Group B will play the second-highest finisher from Group C
  • The second-highest finisher from Group B will play the top finisher from Group C
  • The winners of these four games will receive an LCS contract offer

Once the first four LCS contract slots have been won, the remaining four teams will play a single-elimination bracket to one final winner, using the following structure:
  • Loser of Group A Winner/Group D 2nd-place match vs. loser of the Group C Winner/Group B 2nd-place match
  • Loser of the Group B Winner/Group C 2nd-place match vs. loser of the Group D Winner/Group A 2nd-place match
  • Winners of Matches 1 and 2 will face off for the fifth and final LCS contract offer

Good luck to all the teams."

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