Riot adds LoL Japan League (LJL) to the Pacific Championship Series

Riot Games has announced that the LJL will compete in PCS esports for a spot at MSI and Worlds beginning in 2024. 

At Worlds and MSI, the League of Legends Japan League (LJL) will no longer have a dedicated home. The LJL will play its home season in Japan in 2024, much like it did in 2023. But after that, the top three LJL teams will receive a seed into the PCS Playoffs, where they will face off against other PCS and LCO teams to secure a place in international competitions like the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and Worlds. After League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO) was added at the beginning of the year, this is the second year in a straight that the PCS has received an extra league.

All changes coming to the LJL and PCS

Riot announced at the beginning of the 2023 season that the Oceania (OCE) region would now be a part of the PCS and would no longer be directly seeded in international competitions. With the entry of Japan’s LJL, Riot is now expanding the Pacific Championship Series again to include another region.

Riot intends to fuse more regions into one league, which it hopes will become a dominant force in the global League of Legends competitions. As a result of teams from the LJL and LCO being allowed to play the PCS teams, there will be more cross-regional matchups. Furthermore, LJL gamers will now be regarded as PCS residents, much as PCO players. In other words, if they join a PCS team, they won’t be classified as “imports”. Teams competing in the LJL will still need to have a minimum of three Japanese players on their rosters.

【お知らせ】
LJL（League of Legends Japan League）の Pacific Championship Series エコシステム加入について。

2024年の国際大会出場へのロードマップおよびPCSプレイオフ形式について詳しくは以下の記事をご覧ください：https://t.co/Nym3PC9TWj pic.twitter.com/gIfWWPJngh

— LJL（League of Legends Japan League） (@Official_LJL) November 27, 2023

 

 

Moreover, competitive League of Legends fans will also enjoy a better experience as a result of the merger as there would be more high-quality broadcast goods available in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and English. Fans’ ability to obtain league updates and match details will also be facilitated by the unification of PCS social platforms. 

There will be 11 teams in total —the top 3 from LJL, the top 6 PCS teams, and the top 2 from the LCO—who will compete in the PCS playoffs. Additionally, it will be split into two stages, with the top three seeds going straight to Stage 2. The top two teams from the Summer Split advance to the Worlds, and the top-ranked team from the Spring Split will play at MSI. Players have expressed strong opinions about the changes, but Riot believes they are a necessary step towards ensuring the league has a viable future.

Header: Riot Games