Photo Credit: Riot Games
The long anticipated 2017 Spring Split has finally begun and already the European LCS has given us two days of exciting games. Currently ongoing is the hyped up first NA LCS match between two of the top teams from last season, TSM and Cloud 9. The new LCS season brought about many roster changes, some of which were covered in the previous League of Legends article on our blog. It is exciting to see how these new and returning players will perform. As we’ve already covered some roster changes in the previous article, this one will focus more on format changes.
10 Ban System
Some big changes occurred during the off season, and the biggest of them all is the 10 ban system. The beginning of draft and pick is the same as before where each team bans three champions before picking. However, after both sides have chosen three champions apiece, the last 2 bans from each side are alternated with the last 2 picks. This could potentially lead to some of the lesser played champions coming into the fore.
EU LCS Adopts Best-of-Threes
The best-of-two format from the Summer Split for Europe was a bit clunky with the ties. This split, the Europeans have chosen to switch to best-of-threes, the preferred format for leagues around the world.
Meta of Carry Supports
The beginning of this split will see more carry heavy supports returning to the meta. Traditional high damage supports such as Zyra has already play in the LCK and LPL. The Gorilla popularized Miss Fortune support as well as Malzahar support have also been played frequently in many leagues already. Just don’t be too surprised when a support has more kills than an ADC.