League of Legends Championship of the Americas (LTA): Teams, format and details

October 31, 2024

by Brian Bencomo

Major changes are coming to the pro League of Legends scene in North America and South America. North America’s LCS, Latin America’s LLA and Brazil’s CBLoL will cease to exist and be replaced by a new league comprising all the Americas. On Thursday, Riot Games announced the teams that would compete in the new League of Legends Championship of the Americas (LTA) and the format for the 2025 schedule. The LTA will kick off Jan. 25, 2025.

The LTA will include a North and South conference, with the North being based in Los Angeles and including six former LCS teams, one former LLA team and a guest team. The South will be based in São Paolo and include six former CBLoL teams, one former LLA team and a guest team. Here are the teams that will be in the LTA in 2025.

LTA North

Lyon Gaming
Cloud9
Dignitas
FlyQuest
Shopify Rebellion
Team Liquid
100 Thieves (provisional guest team)
Disguised (guest team)

Photo credit: Marv Watson / Riot Games

It isn’t surprising to see Team Liquid and FlyQuest in the LTA North. These are two of the LCS teams that qualified for the League of Legends World Championship this year. Cloud9 is a longtime very successful member of the LCS. Dignitas is another longtime LCS member, though they have never had much success in the league. Shopify is the newest member of the LCS having acquired TSM’s spot this year.

100 Thieves getting a provisional guest slot will probably disappoint a lot of fans of the popular org, but Riot announced 100 Thieves’ intention to sell their slot. This means 2025 will likely be 100T’s last year in the pro League of Legends scene.

Lyon Gaming is a joint venture of Six Karma and Movistar R7. Lyon Gaming was a brand that existed in the Latin American league from 2013 to 2017.

Disguised, which is owned by popular content creator Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang, began competing in the North American Challengers League in 2023 and was NACL champ that year.

LTA South

Fluxo
FURIA
Leviatán
LOUD
paiN Gaming
Red Canids
Vivo Keyd Stars
Isurus (guest team)

Photo credit: Riot Games

Fluxo, FURIA, LOUD, paiN Gaming, Red Canids and Vivo Keyd Stars were all playoff teams in Split 2 of the 2024 CBLoL season with paiN earning a trip to Worlds. PaiN have been one of the most successful teams in CBLoL history. LOUD have been the standard-bearers for Brazil in recent years having gone to Worlds in 2022 and 2023 and MSI in 2023 and 2024. FURIA is one of the biggest Brazilian esports brands, and Red Canids have had a lot of success in CBLoL in the past.

Leviatán joined the LLA in 2024 and have been making their mark in Latin America in recent years for their VALORANT team. Fellow Latin American team Isurus has been one of the most successful LLA franchises, but despite this, they will only be a guest team and will have to compete to retain their slot beyond 2025.

2025 LTA Format

Photo credit: Marv Watson / Riot Games

LTA Split 1 will start with a best-of-three double-elimination tournament within each conference. The top four teams from the LTA North will then fly to Brazil to take on the top four teams in the LTA South in a single-elimination tournament. The matchups will be best of three until the final which will be best-of-five. The winner will qualify for a new international tournament that Riot has yet to announce.

LTA Split 2 will be the most traditional split. Teams will play a double round robin against each team in their conference. The top six teams in each conference will advance to a double-elimination playoff bracket. Each conference will crown a champion which will represent the LTA at MSI, which will now be in the summer instead of May like usual.

In LTA Split 3, things will get wild again with the introduction of a “pick & play” system where teams will get a chance to pick their opponents each week. In the first few weeks, the worst teams will get to pick their opponents, and in the last few weeks the best teams will get to do so. After six weeks, the top three teams from the LTA South will travel to North America to face the top three teams in the LTA North for the Americas Regional Championship and Worlds qualification.

Lead photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games