NA LCS sister teams will not be able to gain LCS promotion from Challenger Series

Riot Games has announced that NA LCS sister teams that qualify for the promotion tournament in the Challenger Series will not be allowed to play in it. 

Over recent splits many teams have had one team in the LCS and one team in the Challenger Series. Some teams have seen their teams top the challenger series and gain a spot in the promotion tournament. The promotion tournament pits the worst LCS teams against the best Challenger Series teams with the winners getting a slot in the LCS. 

However Riot’s rules state that no team owner can have two teams in the LCS. This lead to organisations with two slots in the LCS selling the spot, often for more than a million dollars. 

One good example of this is Cloud 9. They have been a staple of the NA LCS for years, but this season it’s challenger series team won a spot in the LCS, they have now been forced to sell that spot. 

But Riot has now put a stop to this in NA. 

Riot’s senior esports coordinator J.T. Vandenbree announced on Twitter that in North America LCS sister teams will not be able to play in the promotion tournament. 

“Also worth noting- as of this year, LCS sister teams are not allowed to participate in Promotion. The incentive to ‘farm’ a CS spot is gone,” said Vandenbree. “Since lots are asking – if a sister team takes top 2, we will take the next highest-finishing CS team.”

This should prevent LCS teams dominating the challenger series and give smaller orgs a realistic shot at the big leagues. 

For the time being this is only for North America. Europe makes its own rules and is yet to comment on the matter.