2020 LCS season
The 2020 LCS season was the third year under partnership and eighth overall of the "League of Legends" Championship Series (LCS), a professional esports league for the MOBA PC game "League of Legends". It was the first year that the league used a double elimination bracket for its playoff format. Championship points and the regional finals were also removed from the World Championship qualification process. The spring split began on January 25 and was scheduled to conclude with the spring finals on April 19; however, due to the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, the season  was temporarily suspended on March 13. Four days later, it was announced that the LCS would resume on March 20, with all matches being played online. The summer split began on June 12 and concluded with the summer finals on September 6. The three teams that qualified for the World Championship in 2020 were Team SoloMid, FlyQuest, and Team Liquid. League changes. Riot Games announced several changes to the LCS on January 8. Playoff format. The LCS changed its playoff format to a double elimination bracket, similar to that which was adopted by the LEC in 2019. The number of  teams participating in the spring playoffs was unchanged, remaining at six, but the number of teams in the summer playoffs was increased from six to eight. Both splits' playoffs feature a winners' bracket and a losers' bracket, with the bottom two teams beginning in the losers' and the rest beginning in the winners'. Schedule. The LCS regular season schedule was revised for 2020. Four LCS games were broadcast each Saturday and Sunday instead of five, and the remaining two games were aired during "Monday Night League", which would feature the two most anticipated match ups of the week. LCS commissioner  Chris Greeley explained that this change was made to give less popular teams and players more exposure and opportunities to develop their brand, as many viewers, he argued, only tune in to watch their favorite teams. Following community feedback and "careful consideration", LCS officials announced that Monday Night League would be changed to Friday Night League for the summer split. International qualifications. The previous system of Championship points and the regional finals were completely removed from the World Championship qualification process. As of 2020, the results of the spring split would only determine the LCS' representative for the Mid-Season  Invitational, and did not have any part in determining a team's future qualification for the World Championship. The summer champions, runners-up and third place team would qualify for the World Championship as the LCS' first, second and third seeds, respectively. Broadcasting. The English broadcast was available on the LoL Esports website, as well as on Twitch and YouTube. On January 20, Riot Games announced their official partnership with Chinese streaming service Huya, giving them exclusive rights to the Chinese broadcast. On April 8, it was announced that the spring playoffs would be aired on ESPN2 and the ESPN  App.