Riot Games will postpone its plan to overhaul the European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS), according to a report from ESPN.
Instead of splitting the EU LCS into four regions and expanding to 24 teams, Riot will instead stay with a 10-team format, according to the report, and the teams will play a double round robin, best-of-one format like what was re-implemented last week in the North American LCS. Riot Games will also increase its stipend paid to each team from $410,455 to $586,365, according to the report.
The reported change in heart comes after two EU LCS teams, H2K Gaming and Unicorns of Love, published open letters to the League of Legends community about their concerns regarding the financial instability of the EU LCS. H2K threatened to leave the EU LCS if the conditions did not improve, and UOL echoed many of H2K’s sentiments about the league structure.
Riot reportedly planned to expand the EU LCS into four regions with six teams in each, creating a 24 team league. Fears about the future of the EU LCS emerged when Splyce, Misfits, Fnatic and G2 Esports reportedly applied for inclusion in the NA LCS. According to Friday’s report, G2 is still up for consideration.