The month-long celebrations for the pinnacle of League of Legends competition was fascinating to watch, particularly in the way the event travelled across countries.
That won’t be happening this year. The company’s confirmed this afternoon that while this year’s League Championship Series finals will still run for approximately a month, it’ll be held exclusively in the United States.
Image credit: Riot Games
Proceedings kick off on September 29 for the group stages at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, CA. The first half of the schedule runs until October 2, with the rest kicking off from October 6 and finishing up on October 9.
The Chicago Theatre in Illinois will host the quarter-finals from October 13-16, while New York’s Madison Square Garden will host the semi finals across October 21 and 22.
This year’s grand finals will be held in the Los Angeles Staples Centre on October 29, the homecourt for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and the L.A. Clippers, as well as the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.
Tickets aren’t available for the finals yet, and Riot added that more information will be announced about the finals once winter arrives.
It’ll be interesting to see how the change to the United States affects proceedings. The NA teams, which are well behind their compatriots in South Korea and China, will undoubtedly enjoy the home advantage.
It’ll also be intriguing to see if Riot has any visa issues with players and teams coming from China or CIS regions; not being able to get their visas approved in time has been a recurring problem for Chinese teams over the last decade, and hopefully it doesn’t interfere with the finals.
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