# Pacific Championship Series

The Pacific Championship Series (PCS) is a professional esports league for League of Legends teams competing in the Asia-Pacific. Riot Games, the game's developer, created the league in 2019. This followed an announcement by Garena – the game's distributor in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia – that it planned to merge the League of Legends Master Series (LMS) and League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) into a single tournament jointly run with Riot Games.
Initially, ten teams competed in the regular season, but this was reduced to eight teams in the 2024 spring season and finally seven in the 2024 summer season. In its final year of tier-one competition, the top six teams from the PCS regular season advanced to the playoffs and were joined by the top three teams from Japan and the top two teams from Oceania. Oceania became a part of the PCS region in 2022, with the League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO) being downgraded to a tier-two league secondary to the PCS. Japan followed suit the next year, with the League of Legends Japan League being similarly downgraded and integrated into the PCS.
Riot Games announced in 2024 that the League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) would replace the PCS as the Asia-Pacific's tier-one league from 2025 onward. The PCS, along with the LJL and VCS, would become a tier-two league with a path to promotion to the LCP.

## History
### Prior to the PCS

The first professional esports league for League of Legends players in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia was the Garena Premier League (GPL), which ran from 2012 to mid-2018. Teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were given their own league, the League of Legends Master Series (LMS), in late 2014. Three years later, the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) was upgraded to a Tier 1 tournament and Vietnam became its own competitive region, separate from the rest of Southeast Asia. The GPL was rebranded as the League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) in mid-2018.

### Formation

Garena announced on 25 September 2019 that it intended to merge the LMS and LST into a single league, the details of which would be released near the end of the year. On 19 December, Riot Games announced the name of the new league, the Pacific Championship Series (PCS), and a list of nine of the ten teams that would compete in it. Berjaya Dragons was announced as the last team joining the PCS on 17 January 2020.

### Inaugural season

The 2020 season was postponed until further notice on 29 January due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It was later announced on 18 February that the 2020 season would officially begin on 29 February.
On 13 February it was announced that G-Rex had disbanded its League of Legends team and forfeited its spot in the PCS as a result of internal restructuring by their parent company Emperor Esports Stars. Five days later, Machi Esports was announced as G-Rex's replacement.

### Expansion

Riot Games announced on 18 November 2022 that the PCS would expand to include Oceania, beginning in 2023. Two major changes were made: The winners of the League of Legends Circuit Oceania would no longer directly qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and the World Championship (Worlds). Instead, the LCO's top two teams would have to compete in the PCS playoffs to gain a spot. Additionally, LCO players would have their residencies changed from "Oceania" to "PCS", meaning they would no longer take import slots on PCS teams, and vice versa.
On 26 November 2023, Riot Games announced that the League of Legends Japan League would join the PCS playoffs in a similar manner to the LCO. From 2024 onwards, the top three teams from the LJL would have to compete in the PCS playoffs for a spot at MSI and Worlds. Additionally, LJL players would have their residencies changed from "Japan" to "PCS".

## Format (2024)
### Regular season

* Ten teams
* Double round-robin, best-of-one
* Top six teams advance to playoffs

### Playoffs

* Eleven teams: Top six from the PCS regular season, top three from the LJL playoffs, and top two from the LCO playoffs
** Top two teams from the PCS regular season and the winner of LJL receive a bye to the Stage Two
* Divided into two stages:
** Stage One: Eight teams are divided into two groups of four; teams within each group compete in a double-elimination bracket. The three teams consisting of the winners of each group and winner of match between two group runners-up advance to the Stage Two.
** Stage Two: Six teams compete in a double-elimination bracket.

### Qualifications

* The winner of the spring split qualified for the Mid-Season Invitational
* The winner and runner-up of the summer split qualified for the World Championship as the PCS' first and second seeds respectively

## Teams

Ten teams were initially selected by Riot Games as permanent franchise partners of the PCS. However, it was announced on 4 August 2020 that a promotion tournament would be introduced for the 2021 season to promote regional competitiveness.

### 2025 season

| Team | Joined |
| CFO Academy | 23 January 2025 |
| Deep Cross Gaming | 28 January 2022 |
| Ground Zero Gaming | 23 January 2025 |
| Hell Pigs | 12 January 2023 |
| Frank Esports | 28 January 2022 |
| Hungkuang Falcon | 23 January 2025 |
| Talon Academy | 23 January 2025 |
| West Point Esports | 17 January 2023 |

### Former teams

| Team | Joined | Left | Reason |
| G-Rex | 19 December 2019 | 13 February 2020 | Withdrew |
| Resurgence | 19 December 2019 | 8 September 2020 | Relegated |
| ahq eSports Club | 19 December 2019 | 26 January 2021 | Withdrew |
| Nova Esports | 19 December 2019 | 5 February 2021 | Withdrew |
| Berjaya Dragons | 17 January 2020 | 16 November 2021 | Withdrew |
| Hong Kong Attitude | 19 December 2019 | 24 November 2021 | Withdrew |
| BOOM Esports | 5 February 2021 | 28 January 2022 | Withdrew |
| Liyab Esports | 19 December 2019 | 28 January 2022 | Withdrew |
| Machi Esports | 18 February 2020 | 28 January 2022 | Withdrew |
| SEM9 | 16 November 2021 | 3 December 2022 | Withdrew |
| Meta Falcon Team | 28 January 2022 | 12 January 2023 | Withdrew |
| Dewish Team | 19 December 2019 | 7 October 2023 | Relegated |
| Impunity Esports | 8 September 2020 | 8 October 2023 | Relegated |
| Nate9527 | 6 October 2023 | 19 January 2024 | Withdrew |
| PSG Talon Academy | 7 October 2023 | 19 January 2024 | Withdrew |
| Beyond Gaming | 26 January 2021 | 20 April 2024 | Withdrew |
| J Team | 19 December 2019 | 1 November 2024 | Withdrew |
| PSG Talon | 19 December 2019 | 3 November 2024 | Promoted |
| CTBC Flying Oyster | 27 January 2022 | 3 November 2024 | Promoted |

## Results

| Year | Split | Champions | Runners-up | Third-place |
| 2020 | Spring | Talon Esports | Machi Esports | ahq eSports Club |
| 2020 | Summer | Machi Esports | PSG Talon | J Team |
| 2021 | Spring | PSG Talon | Beyond Gaming | Machi Esports |
| 2021 | Summer | PSG Talon | Beyond Gaming | J Team |
| 2022 | Spring | PSG Talon | CTBC Flying Oyster | J Team |
| 2022 | Summer | CTBC Flying Oyster | Beyond Gaming | PSG Talon |
| 2023 | Spring | PSG Talon | Frank Esports | CTBC Flying Oyster |
| 2023 | Summer | PSG Talon | CTBC Flying Oyster | Beyond Gaming |
| 2024 | Spring | PSG Talon | SoftBank Hawks | CTBC Flying Oyster |
| 2024 | Summer | PSG Talon | SoftBank Hawks | Frank Esports |

## Number of top three finishes
### By team

denotes a team that no longer competes in the PCS.
| Pos | Team | | | | T |
| 1. | PSG Talon | 7 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| 2. | CTBC Flying Oyster | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 3. | Machi Esports | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 4. | Beyond Gaming | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 5. | SoftBank Hawks | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 6. | Frank Esports | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 7. | J Team | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 8. | ahq eSports Club | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |

### By country or region

| Pos | Country / Region | | | | T |
| 1. | Taiwan | 6 | 6 | 8 | 20 |
| 2. | Hong Kong | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 3. | Japan | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |