LCS Summer Split is Returning to Bo3’s

A report by Travis Gafford reveals that the LCS Summer Split is switching back to a series format instead of Best of 1’s.

After the LEC (somewhat) took the plunge that the LCK and LPL had basically since their inception, the LCS is following its Western rival. The North American League of Legends tournament will return to a Best of Three format for it’s Summer Split, as revealed by reporter Travis Gafford in a YouTube video.

LCS Summer Split is Bringing Back Bo3’s

For the second split of the 2024 LCS, Bo3’s are returning after year’s of Bo1’s in the Regular Season. The reason for that is similar to why the LEC decided to introduce Bo3’s back into the league: to compete better with the Chinese and Korean teams who have been dominating international events for years now.

The LCS haven’t had a format incorporating Bo3’s since the 2017 Summer Split. That year saw legendary squad TSM (which has disbanded since) take the crown 3 times in a row, also finishing 5^th in the 2017 MSI, which was considered a great finish for any Western team.

However, the LCS is taking a different approach than the European league. Bringing back Bo3’s won’t lengthen the season, nor will it put more pressure on the players. Alongside Bo3’s, Summer Split will switch to a single round robin format, meaning that each team will play each other once instead of the double round robin of Spring and before. The reason why they can’t just put in more playdays is that the viewership of the LCS has been struggling, so putting more matches is not an option, especially as they would have to go on the weekdays. The LCS tried to do that last year as they had to schedule around the VALORANT Americas tournament, but they quickly switched back.

The two-week break that took place in the Spring Split will also remain, but this time, it’s for a bigger reason than to give the staff and players some time off and give the VALORANT pros their faculties. The 2024 Esports World Cup in Riyadh will take place in the break, and while nobody is sure if the LCS teams will participate in the tournament yet, there’s a high chance that they do.

Travis Gafford expressed concern about the return of Bo3’s, as he believes that the new (returning) format will further hurt the viewership of the region. While we believe that could be the case, that fact is more because of the combination of Bo3’s and single round robin returning to the same time.

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While this change is not a 100% welcomed by every member of the community, Mark Zimmerman, the new director for the LCS has made some wonderful changes to the league. While the viewership didn’t skyrocket, the 2023 Summer Split had a peak viewership of 223k, while this Spring it was 246k. The average viewers however were 120k this year and only 76k last year, with only half the airtime. The LCS is long from dead, but the concerns are valid – we’ll see how Bo3’s will change the reception of the American tournament.