Riot announced late last year that the 2016 Summer Split, for both North America and Europe, will be moving away from best-of-ones. This summer the NA LCS will play best-of-three series’, and the EU LCS will play best-of-two series’. This is good news for a variety of reasons. It doubles (at least) the amount of LCS games played, which in turn is likely to create some new rivalries outside of the traditional CLG/TSM/C9 rotation.
The LCS Spring playoffs just ended, and we saw how great best-of series’ can be. With the new changes to the LCS regular season we’re going to see TSM versus CLG, in a best-of-three, twice per season at least. Team Liquid versus C9? You’re guaranteed at least 4 regular season games. The more games played in the regular season allow for teams to develop deeper rivalries, making playoff games that much more exciting. Best-of series’ also open the door for more strategic play.
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Best-of series’ are going to provide an opportunity for even lower tier teams to put on exciting matches when head to head with a similarly skilled opponent. It can be difficult for the average viewer to pay much attention to a match between 9th and 10th place, but if the two teams have already played out a close 3 game series earlier in the season, more viewers are likely to stick around and watch them duke it out.
More rivalries are good for the LCS. Tension between teams makes games more exciting. Trash talk between top teams is alright, but those games were going to be watched regardless. TSM and CLG have more bad blood between them than TSM and C9 do, but still, nobody is going to forget to watch that TSM/C9 game. With double the games being played in the upcoming split there is increased opportunity for bottom-mid tier teams to create some sparks and develop new fans.
I'm gonna be trash talking my entire career btw, if you're salty about it get used to it i ain't going anywhere. : )
— Joshua Hartnett (@LiquidDardoch) April 18, 2016
This is what makes Dardoch such an asset to Team Liquid. Not only is he one of the best non-import North American junglers, but he likes to run his mouth in competition, which creates hype for Team Liquid games. This is rare in League of Legends. The vast majority of pros don’t want to appear toxic so they avoid trash talk. Not Dardoch. Doublelift has been expressing exactly what is on his mind for a long time now and that’s what makes him such a polarizing player. Whether you hate him or love him, Doublelift makes games more exciting because of the comments he makes.
With double the games being played in the upcoming LCS summer split there is a potential for lower tier teams to earn fans by playing scrappy games and creating rivalries with teams of similar skill. The more trash talk the better!
