The upcoming Spring Split is bound to begin in a matter of weeks, so Riot Games decided to unveil a couple of crucial 2020 LCS playoff changes.

These adjustments affect most of the region and its 10 permanent partners. It changes the way teams qualify for the World Championship, among other things.

2020 LCS Spring Split Playoffs

The 2020 LCS Spring Split playoffs have the same format as the LEC. The goal is to make the playoffs (and their subsequent results) more consistent. For the fans, however, this is an important change because it’ll give us more Best of 5 clashes between the very best teams in the region.

Here’s a visual representation of the whole Spring Split playoff bracket:

2020 LCS Spring Split Playoffs

The regular portion of the Spring Split consists of nine weeks, with each match played in the Best of 1 format. The playoffs, however, now takes place over four weeks. The team that wins the playoffs qualifies for the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational.

2020 LCS Summer Split Playoffs

The Summer Split, however, is where things change even further. Fortunately, it’s for the better. Instead of six, we’ll see the top eight teams fight it out in the playoffs (with every match played in the Best of 5 format). The playoffs consist of two brackets (“Winner’s Bracket” and “Loser’s Bracket”). The entire thing plays out much like a standard Dota 2 double-elimination tournament.

In the end, the winner of the winner’s bracket and the winner of the loser’s bracket collide in the finals. You can look at an example bracket below:

2020 LCS Summer Split Playoffs

Finally, the way the playoffs resolve dictates who gets to go to Worlds. The team that wins the Summer Split automatically becomes North America’s first seed. The team that loses in the finals becomes the second seed, and the team that places third (Z1 loser, in the bracket example above) becomes the third and final seed.

There are no more Championship Points and no more Regional Qualifier. It means the three best teams from Summer gets the honors. They will represent their region on the international stage, meaning it no longer matters how well a team performs in Spring.

It is exciting because it rewards the teams who attain the best results, all the while disregarding the past. We’ve seen just how much a team can regress performance-wise between the two splits. It means the entire Championship Points system never worked as well as it should have. In other words, it did worse than good, especially for a region that is struggling with international competitiveness.

These 2020 LCS playoff changes are a step in the right direction. Whether they’ll result in a more competitive top half of the region remains to be seen, but we like the direction where things are headed.

If you want to learn more about the schedule changes that’ll hit the 2020 LCS Spring Split, you can read our in-depth breakdown. If you’re looking for a more official explanation on everything we covered above (and a bit more), check out Riot’s official announcement here.