LCS 2024: What’s new in North America’s top League of Legends circuit

January 19, 2024

by Brian Bencomo

The 2024 season of the League Championships Series (LCS), North America’s top-flight League of Legends circuit, starts this weekend. In addition to the usual offseason roster shuffle, there have been several changes made to the schedule, and the composition of teams in the LCS has changed as well. Here’s a refresher on what’s new this year in the LCS, including a primer on each team’s roster.

LCS changes for 2024

The biggest change for 2024 is the reduction in the number of LCS teams from 10 to eight. Late last year, Riot Games gave teams the option to leave the LCS, and Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians accepted the offer and dropped out. EG leaving the scene was not surprising given the org’s well-chronicled financial issues and mismanagement around their teams and players. GG’s exit was more unexpected given the team performed better than it ever had in 2023. Plus, with the backing of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and a new facility that opened in 2023, there were no public indications that the org was looking to exit esports.

Photo credit: Riot Games

Among the eight teams, Shopify Rebellion is a new org to the league this year. They took over TSM’s old slot in the LCS. TSM leaving the LCS is a huge change for the league this year as the org has been there from the beginning of North American League of Legends esports. It was consistently one of the best orgs in the league until recent years and the home of some of the best and most popular players like Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg and Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng.

Games will once again take place on weekends, which is a reversal of what we saw last year. For years, LCS games were on weekends, but were moved to weekdays last year to accommodate VALORANT games being played at the same arena on weekends. That change led to much outrage among fans and perhaps even played a part in the reduced viewership last year. VALORANT and League of Legends will still coexist at Riot Games Arena this year, which is why there’s an odd two weekend break for the LCS in February. We’ll eventually find out how scheduling will look like in the summer when LCS summer split games will need to be scheduled against Splits 1 and 2 of the VCT season.

Schedule and format

The eight LCS teams will compete in a double round robin format across six weeks during the spring split. The two-week break will take place between Weeks 4 and 5, and will cover the last two weeks of February.

Each team will play two games per week on Saturdays and Sundays except Weeks 3 and 6, which will be super weeks. During these weeks, teams will play three games: on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Games start at 12 p.m. PT each day. Week 1 starts Jan. 20 and Week 6 concludes March 10, with the six best teams moving on to the spring split playoffs.

Teams and rosters

100 Thieves

Rayan “Sniper” Shoura
Kim “River”Dong-woo
Lim “Quid” Hyeon-seung
Brandon “Meech” Choi
Bill “Eyla” Nguyen

Photo credit: Riot Games

After starting last year with a couple of veterans in Bjergsen and Doublelift, 100 Thieves have done a 180 and will be relying on youth in 2024. Sniper is the centerpiece of 100T’s youth movement as he is one of the most anticipated young prospects in North America. He was signed by 100 Thieves shortly after turning 15 in 2021 and has played on various 100 Thieves developmental teams the past couple years. He’ll be joined by Meech who also will be making his pro debut after spending the last few years playing in the North American Tier 2 scene. Quid, a 19-year-old Korean player who came up through the Gen.G’s developmental teams, is the sole returning player after joining 100T midyear in 2023.

Cloud9

Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami
Robert “Blaber” Huang
Joseph “jojopyun” Joon Pyun
Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol
Philippe “VULCAN” Laflamme

Photo credit: Riot Games

Cloud9 are always among the best teams in the LCS and perennial North American representatives at international events. That should again be the case this year with the superteam C9 have assembled. Fudge and Blaber have been cornerstones of this team’s success the past few years. VULCAN is back to support reigning LCS MVP Berserker.

But the most exciting aspect of this roster is that they now have jojopyun too. Since being promoted as a 17-year-old by Evil Geniuses in 2022, jojo has been arguably the most exciting player in the LCS. His skills and bravado make him a must-watch player, and he got plenty of international experience in his rookie season. Superteams don’t always work out, but on paper this team has tremendous upside.

Dignitas

Lee “Rich” Jae-won
Lawrence “eXyu” Lin Xu
Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon
Frank “Tomo” Lam
Jonah “Isles” Rosario

Photo credit: Riot Games

Rich and Tomo return for a Dignitas team that improved markedly last summer compared to the spring. EXyu, who has spent most of the past couple years with Dignitas’ Academy and Challengers teams will get another shot to start for Dig’s LCS team after previously doing so in summer 2022. Isles spent several years in the Cloud9 organization, mostly on their Tier 2 teams, and will get another chance to start in the LCS this year. Dove is the most intriguing addition to the team. The Korean player competed in the LCK from 2019 to 2022. Last year he began the year with China’s Invictus Gaming as a starter before being benched midseason.

FlyQuest

Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau
Kacper “Inspired” Słoma
Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen
Fahad “Massu” Abdulmalek
Alan “Busio” Cwalina

Photo credit: Riot Games

There was a lot of hype around FlyQuest last year, but the team never lived up to expectations, and the org has hit the reset button for 2024. On paper, this team figures to be competitive and there are modest expectations for this roster. It’s a blend of three veteran players and two youngsters.

Bwipo is returning to competitive play after a year of streaming. He achieved a lot of success in Europe where he made the Worlds final with Fnatic in 2018, but was part of a disappointing Team Liquid squad in 2022 in his first year in North America. Fellow EU veteran Inspired also is returning to pro play after not being signed to a team last summer. He was LCS MVP in 2022 when Evil Geniuses was the top team in North America. Jensen missed Worlds last year for the first time in his career, breaking an eight-year streak. He’ll have a much better chance to reach Worlds this year alongside his new teammates.

The veteran trio will be playing alongside rookie Massu and second-year player Busio. Nineteen-year-old Massu got called up from FlyQuest’s Challengers team and will be paired in the bot lane with Busio, who had a solid rookie year in 2023. While Busio got to learn under superstar veteran Doublelift last year, he will now have to apply everything he has learned as the senior member of this duo.

Immortals

Cho “Castle” Hyeon-seong
Jonathan “Armao” Armao
Lee “Mask” Sang-hun
Edward “Tactical” Ra
Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung

Photo credit: Riot Games

It’s a reset for Immortals in 2024 after another poor year in 2023. The roster is an eclectic mixture of veterans and youngsters who have played both near and far. Tactical is the only returning player for Immortals. His bot lane partner will be Olleh, an LCS veteran who was teamless last year and actually played for Immortals way back in 2017. Korean youngsters Castle and Mask will be making their North American debuts. They both played together with KT Challengers in 2022. The 21-year-old Castle has developed on KT’s Tier 2 teams since 2021, while 23-year-old Mask played for a few other Korean teams before KT and was on Europe’s Unicorns of Love Sexy Edition last year.

NRG

Niship “Dhokla” Doshi
Juan Arturo “Contractz” Garcia
Cristian “Palafox” Palafox
Ian “FBI” Victor Huang
Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun

Photo credit: Riot Games

The reigning LCS champions enter their second year in the league with more hype, yet somehow they still seem underrated -- especially after beating G2 and reaching the Worlds quarterfinals last year. NRG only made one roster change in the offseason, adding the veteran huhi as support. He has been a critical piece of successful 100 Thieves and Golden Guardians rosters the past couple years and should make NRG even stronger. More than any other team in the LCS, this roster has thrived on being underrated and has steadily improved every year since the core of Dhokla, Contractz and Palafox began playing together with CLG in 2022 under the leadership of coach Thomas “Thinkcard” Slotkin. Expect NRG to compete with Cloud9 all year for the LCS crown.

Shopify Rebellion

Aaron “FakeGod” Lee
Lee “Bugi” Seong-yeop
David “Insanity” Challe
Ju “Bvoy” Yeong-hoon
Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam

Photo credit: Riot Games

Shopify bought TSM’s slot to join the LCS and signed two members of TSM’s 2023 roster: Bugi and Insanity. Joining them will be FakeGod and Zeyzal, who won the North American Challengers League championship last year with Disguised. FakeGod is making his return to North America’s top tier competition for the first time since 2022. It’s been even longer for Zeyzal, who last competed in the LCS in 2020 -- practically an eternity in esports. Bvoy will be making his North American debut after playing in pretty much every other region. The 26-year-old Korean played briefly in Korea before moving to China from 2016 to 2019. He played briefly in Europe in 2020 and has spent time in Brazil and Latin America since 2020.

Team Liquid

Jeong “Impact” Eon-young
Eom “UmTi” Seong-hyeon
Eain “APA” Stearns
Sean “Yeon” Sung
Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in

Photo credit: Riot Games

Team Liquid had a mediocre 2023 spring split, but improved in the summer, especially after adding APA at mid lane. The team exceeded expectations in finishing third in the playoffs and qualifying for Worlds. This roster is really a continuation of the mostly Korean roster plan that was put in place last year with APA, Yeon and CoreJJ all returning. Impact, one of if not the best top laners in North America, is a big upgrade over Park "Summit" Woo-tae. It’s a reunion for him and CoreJJ who played on very successful Team Liquid rosters in 2019 and 2020. The addition of jungler Eom "UmTi" Seong-hyeon in place of 2022 world champion Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon is more questionable. The 24-year-old Korean will be playing in North America for the first time and is not coming over as a highly touted prospect.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games