# Vietnam Championship Series

The Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) is a professional League of Legends esports league run by Riot Games and VNG Games, a subsidiary of VNG Corporation since 2022 after Garena stopped publishing League of Legends and its major competitions in Vietnam. From 2013 to 2017, the VCS was a tier below Garena Premier League (GPL). In 2018, the VCS broke away from the GPL and became a separate tier one league. In 2025, the VCS will return to being a tier two league, being below the upcoming League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP). The Vietnamese teams had the opportunity to participate directly in international events of League of Legends organized by Riot Games before then.

## History
### 2012–2013

Before changing the name to the Vietnam Championship Series tournament that once named the Glorious Arena. Over 4 seasons from mid 2012 to the end of 2013 the tournament saw the dominance of Saigon Jokers with 3 times of champion and once champion of Full Louis. By the end of 2013, it was changed to Vietnam Championship Series.

### 2013–2015

The first tournament was held in 2013 with the name Vietnam Championship Series without qualifying, the participating teams were invited by Vietnam Esports and the total prize value of the first tournament was VND 200,000,000. From the third season, the tournament starts with qualifiers and names are also changed to Vietnam Championship Series (VCS A) to distinguish them from the qualifying tournament of Vietnam Championship Series B (VCS B). In 2014, sponsored by Dell, the name of the prize was named Dell Championship Serie A (DCS A).
In 2015, the number of teams participating in VCS A was increased to 16 teams, playing in a round robin format with two turns (first and second round) scoring according to the Bo1 format. The team with the most points will be crowned champion. Saigon Fantastic Five has won the VCS A championship in spring 2015 and then the GPL spring 2015, becoming the first Vietnamese team to win the GPL.

### 2016

In 2016, VCS A made a big step when the tournament was officially part of the Riot Games tournament system, marking the official VCS A step up professionally. The organizing committee reduced the number of participating teams to 10, in return it will give 2 million VND / month to the coaches and athletes. The tournament format also changes accordingly: 10 rounds of 2 rounds count Bo1 points, 4 teams with the highest score will participate in play-offs to find champions. VCS A was also renamed Coca-Cola Championship Series (CCCS) under the sponsorship of Coca-Cola. By the summer of 2016, the Coca-Cola Championship Series was renamed the MountainDew Championship Series (MDCS) under the sponsorship of the Mountain Dew drinking water label.

### 2017

The number of teams participating in the competition continues to be reduced to 8, in return for the coach and athletes' salary increased to 3 million VND / month. The format of the tournament is also changed: 8 rounds of 2 rounds count Bo3 points, 4 teams with the highest score will participate in play-offs to find the champion.

### 2018

Riot Games directly participated in the tour operation, the tournament returned with the name Vietnam Championship Series, the total prize pool increased to 1 billion VND 200 million, the salary of coach and athletes increased to VND 4 million / month . In addition, VCS matches are held at GG Stadium - 6th Floor, Crescent Mall, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City built by Riot Games, instead of being organized online as before. Teams not based in Ho Chi Minh City will be supported by the organizers during the VCS Spring 2018. On 21 February 2018, VCS separated from GPL. This is a result based on the fact that in recent years VCS has always been the dominant force of the GPL. Especially at the two spring and summer events in 2017. Impressive competitions at MSI 2017 and World Championship 2017. Riot Games believes that this is a very appropriate time to get Vietnam away from the GPL to become a separate area. Changes in Vietnam's participatory international tournaments are as follows:
* Vietnam (VCS) will be grouped with Turkey (TCL) and CIS (LCL) at Rift Rivals.
* MSI: Will be expanded into a tournament for 14 teams.
* World Championship: Definitely get a boot round.
VCS Championship team Spring Spring 2018 will increase to 100 million VND, bringing the total value to 500 million VND will be separated from GPL's reward Spring 2018 (The expected prize that the Vietnamese champion team attends GPL Spring). However, this only applies to Spring, and from Summer onwards Vietnam will no longer relate to the GPL tournament.

### 2024 – Match fixing scandal and final tier 1 season

On 15 March 2024, the Spring 2024 season of VCS was suspended due to "unexpected reasons that could affect the matches". By this point the season was in its final week, with 6 matches to be played when the season was suspended. On 18 March, the matches played on 14 March, one day before the suspension, were ruled null and void. All 8 teams in the VCS were put under investigation, with 32 players suspended indefinitely. Rainbow Warriors, one of the teams present, had all of their players suspended with people saying that they were Match fixing. The playoffs went ahead in April with the remaining Group stage games not played. On 3 June, before the Summer split, 29 of the 32 players were officially suspended. Rainbow Warriors were banned from the VCS and future Riot competitions and their spot was revoked in addition.
On 11 June 2024 Riot announced "LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future", which overhauled the League of Legends Esports ecosystem. The VCS was to no longer be a league that qualified squads for the League of Legends World Championship, as instead an Asia-Pacific league would take its place. VCS would once again become a second tier, echoing the GPL days before 2018. The plans were as follows:
* New International Tournament (First Stand): First split with "Fearless Draft" drafting system
* Three seasons, with Regional Championship after third season
* League of Legends World Championship: Decrease to 17 teams
* MSI: Decrease to 10 teams
* Asia-Pacific League: 8 teams, 4 in partnership with Riot Games (Other 4 can relegate)
With 2024 Summer being the last season of VCS in Tier 1, GAM Esports won the title and, along with Vikings Esports, enter 2024 League of Legends World Championship, with GAM making Swiss Stage. When the teams for the new league (League of Legends Championship Pacific [LCP]) were announced, GAM was announced as a partner team with Riot Games while Vikings Esports (as merit slot) and Team Whales joined as guests; Team Secret would later buy out Team Whales spot and become Secret Whales.

### 2025 – Back to Tier 2

Out of the remaining teams in VCS final Tier 1 season, only Team Flash opted to stay, with all other members opting to leave in way or another. MGN Blue and CERBERUS Esports left the game altogether, while GAM Esports, Vikings Esports and Secret Whales (Merger between Team Secret and Team Whales) joined League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP).
On 14 January 2025, the VCS announced its new format to accompany the transition back to Tier 2 league. The winning team of the new Final Round will join LCP Promotion Tournament and have chance at winning promotion to LCP.

## Competition format
### Road to VCS

Road to VCS is the promotion tournament series for Vietnam Championship Series which allows amateur teams to qualify for the VCS. Before each split, three teams (Four for Spring 2025) qualify from this mechanism, which features open qualifiers both online and LAN.

### Swiss stage

This period will have the participation of 8 teams, playing a modified Swiss-system tournament setup. The strongest teams (Those who win two series) advance to the Round Knockout, while the two worst teams (Those who lost three series) have to requalify for the next split via Road to VCS. Each game is played according to the ban and Select 5vs5 on the map Summoner's Rift.

### Playoffs

6 teams will compete against each other in a double elimination mode to find the champion of the split: the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th teams will fight each other in the first matches of winners brackets, the winning team will go on to meet the 1st and 2nd teams in the second matches of winners brackets, etc. The winner of the Grand Finals in both Spring and Summer is the top team in VCS for the split, while the worst team in this round has to requalify via Road to VCS. Matches of this stage will take place in the form of Best of 3 (3 games maximum) for the first rounds and Best of 5 (5 games maximum) for the final rounds.

### Finals

The champions of Spring and top 3 teams of Summer qualify for Finals, an in-person event serving as end of season championship for Vietnam Championship Series. The Summer champions chooses their opponent for first semi-final match, while the remaining teams play in second semi-final match. The winners of these semi-finals compete in the Grand Final, with the winner becoming VCS Champion and earning League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) Promotion Tournament spot. The matches of Final Round take place as Best of 5 (5 games maximum).

## Past seasons

| Year | Split | Duration | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| 2013 | Winter | 11 February 2013 – 17 December 2013 | XGame | Hanoi Dragons | Beautiful Life Gaming |
| 2014 | Spring | 22 February 2014 – 13 April 2014 | Team Ozone Cutie Monsters | Hanoi Dragons | Hanoi Fate |
| 2014 | Summer | 14 June 2014 – 24 September 2014 | Hanoi Fate | HoL Elements | Hanoi Phoenix |
| 2015 | Spring | 15 November 2014 – 4 June 2015 | Saigon Fantastic Five | Saigon Jokers | Boba Marines |
| 2015 | Summer | 17 May 2015 – 24 August 2015 | Boba Marines | Full Louis | Saigon Jokers |
| 2016 | Spring | 15 January 2016 – 3 June 2016 | Saigon Jokers | Full Louis | 269 Gaming Boba Marines |
| 2016 | Summer | 20 May 2016 – 18 July 2016 | Saigon Jokers | Saigon Mongaming | An Phát Ultimate Boba Marines |
| 2017 | Spring | 8 February 2017 – 2 April 2017 | GIGABYTE Marines | Young Generation | UTM Esports |
| 2017 | Summer | 7 June 2017 – 13 August 2017 | GIGABYTE Marines | Young Generation | ROG Friends |
| 2018 | Spring | 18 January 2018 – 4 July 2018 | EVOS Esports | GIGABYTE Marines | UTM Esports |
| 2018 | Summer | 21 June 2018 – 22 September 2018 | Phong Vũ Buffalo | Adonis Esports | Friends Forever |
| 2019 | Spring | 17 January 2019 – 13 April 2019 | Phong Vũ Buffalo | EVOS Esports | Sky Gaming |
| 2019 | Summer | 20 June 2019 – 15 September 2019 | GAM Esports | Lowkey Esports | Team Flash |
| 2020 | Spring | 31 January 2020 – 18 April 2020 | Team Flash | GAM Esports | EVOS Esports |
| 2020 | Summer | 19 June 2020 – 5 September 2020 | Team Flash | GAM Esports | EVOS Esports |
| 2021 | Spring | 22 January 2021 – 18 April 2021 | GAM Esports | |Saigon Buffalo | ⁠Team Secret |
| 2021 | Summer | Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam | Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam | Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam | Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam |
| 2021 | Winter | 16 November 2021 – 26 December 2021 | CERBERUS Esports | GAM Esports | Burst The Sky Esports |
| 2022 | Spring | 11 February 2022 - 24 April 2022 | GAM Esports | Saigon Buffalo | Team Secret |
| 2022 | Summer | 7 June 2022 - 4 September 2022 | GAM Esports | Saigon Buffalo | Team Secret |
| 2023 | Spring | 24 February 2023 – 23 April 2023 | GAM Esports | SBTC Esports | CERBERUS Esports |
| 2023 | Summer | 23 June 2023 – 9 September 2023 | GAM Esports | Team Whales | Team Secret |
| 2024 | Spring | 20 January 2024 – 7 April 2024 | GAM Esports | Vikings Esports | Team Secret |
| 2024 | Summer | 21 June 2024 – 18 August 2024 | GAM Esports | Vikings Esports | Team Whales |
| 2025 | Spring | 28 February 2025 – 30 March 2025 | | | |
| 2025 | Summer | 21 May 2025 – 22 June 2025 | | | |
| 2025 | Final Round | 29 August 2024 – 31 August 2025 | | | |

## Statistics
### Top-performing teams

| Team(s) | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
| GAM Esports | 11 | 3 | 3 |
| Saigon Buffalo | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Saigon Jokers | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Team Flash | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| EVOS Esports | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Hanoi Fate | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cerberus Esports | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Saigon Fantastic Five | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| XGame | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Team Ozone Cutie Monsters | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Full Louis | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Team Whales | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Vikings Esports | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Team Secret | 0 | 0 | 5 |

## Individual awards
### Season MVP Standings

| Year | Split | Player | Team | Time/Points |
| 2017 | Spring | Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh | GIGABYTE Marines | 400 |
| 2017 | Summer | | | |
| 2018 | Spring | Nguyễn "YiJin" Lê Hải Đăng | EVOS Esports | 900 |
| 2018 | Summer | Phạm "Zeros" Minh Lộc | Phong Vũ Buffalo | 10 |
| 2019 | Spring | Phạm "Zeros" Minh Lộc | Phong Vũ Buffalo | 1100 |
| 2019 | Summer | Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh Nguyễn " YiJin " Lê Hải Đăng | GAM Esports Team Flash | 800 |
| 2020 | Spring | Lê "Dia1" Phú Quý | GAM Esports | 1100 |
| 2020 | Summer | Lê "Dia1" Phú Quý | GAM Esports | 1000 |
| 2021 | Spring | Đỗ "Levi" Duy Khánh | GAM Esports | 1000 |
| 2021 | Winter | Lê Lưu "Killerqueen" Bách Đạt | Luxury Esports | 11 |
| 2022 | Spring | Trần "BeanJ" Văn Chính | Saigon Buffalo | 1000 |