- League of Legends NA LCS Summer Split to Kick Off Esports Coverage on June 16th
- Opening Match Between Last Split’s Finalists: Team Liquid vs. 100 Thieves
League of Legends (LoL) esports competitions will be available on ESPN+ starting this summer as part of a new, multi-year agreement with Riot Games.
Coverage will kick off June 16th with the 2018 North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split (NA LCS), bringing the largest esport in the world to sports fans via the ESPN app and ESPN.com. Subscribers of ESPN+ will be able to watch League of Legends competitions alongside thousands of additional live sporting events, original content and shows, and an on-demand video library. ESPN+ subscribers also enjoy a limited advertising experience throughout the entire ESPN App and website, with no display ads or pre-roll ads within video content.
The NA LCS is the preeminent League of Legends esports league in North America. The LCS is comprised of 10 teams, which face off against each other twice in the course of the season — a total of 18 matches each with teams playing once per day. The competition stretches across two splits, Spring and Summer. Matches will stream live on ESPN+ Saturdays and Sundays.
Teams competing in the NA LCS include:
1. 100 Thieves | 2. Cloud9 | 3. Clutch Gaming | 4. Counter Logic Gaming |
5. Echo Fox | 6. FlyQuest | 7. Golden Guardians | 8. OpTic Gaming |
9. Team Liquid | 10. TSM |
This year the NA LCS Summer Finals will be at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA on September 8-9, with the 3rd place match on Saturday, Sept. 8, before crowning the Summer Split champion on Sunday, Sept. 9.
After the completion of the NA LCS Summer Split, three teams will qualify for the League of Legends World Championship in South Korea. The World Championship will see 24 teams from the 14 regional leagues fight for a chance to hoist the Summoners Cup later this fall.
The 2017 World Championship set records with over 80 million unique viewers tuning in for a single match and fans consuming over 1.2 billion hours of content during the event. Earlier this month the World’s Broadcast was awarded a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Live Graphic Design by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
For additional details, including the full 2018 NA LCS schedule, please visit https://www.lolesports.com/en_US/na-lcs.
About ESPN+
ESPN+ is the first-ever multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment in conjunction with ESPN. It offers fans thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks. This includes hundreds of MLB, NHL and MLS games, Grand Slam tennis, Top Rank boxing, PGA Tour golf, college sports, international rugby, cricket, the full library of ESPN Films (including 30 for 30) and more. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year).
ESPN+ is an integrated part of the completely redesigned ESPN App. Already the leading sports app, the new ESPN App is the premier all-in-one digital sports platform for fans and is a showcase of the company’s culture of innovation. With a richer, increasingly more personalized experience, the new ESPN App curates all of ESPN’s incredible content into an experience unique to each fan’s individual tastes. ESPN+ is also available through ESPN.com.
About Riot Games
Riot Games was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill with the intent to change the way video games are made and supported for players. In 2009, Riot released its debut title League of Legends to worldwide acclaim. The game has since gone on to become the most played PC game in the world and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports. Players are the foundation of our community and it’s for them we continue to evolve and improve the League of Legends experience. Riot Games is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and has 23 offices worldwide.