Note at 11:20 AM Pacific: Some portions of this article have been edited based on clarifications received from LCS staff.
The LCS is announcing a complete overhaul of the Academy and amateur competitive format, introducing sweeping changes that include heavy emphasis on tournament-style play, many opportunities for Academy and amateur teams to compete against each other, and extended protections and contracting guidelines to give LCS teams more incentive to invest in developing talent beyond the Academy level.
Overall, this structure is an enormous improvement and should bring many different benefits into the scene, even if it’s not perfect in some of the fine details.
You can read the complete announcement on the LoL esports website, or keep scrolling here for analysis of the key points and how they will affect and incentivize both LCS and amateur organizations.
Competitive Format
The format is a little complex, so you might have to go through it a few times to grasp the nuances.
LCS infographic illustrating the new Academy/amateur format for Spring 2021
Effectively, there is now a half-length Academy regular season in January/February, played alongside a series of “Tier 2” amateur tournaments (which the Academy teams are allowed to play in, up to 5 Academy teams per tournament).