Tras el ascenso de Cloud9 Challenger, y el casi-ascenso de Team Liquid Academy, en Riot se han puesto serios y no permitirán a estos equipos subir a la LCS, pasando su puesto en la clasificación al siguiente si estos llegan a puesto de ascenso:
NA LCS sister teams competing in the Challenger Series will not be allowed to compete in promotion tournaments to secure a spot in the LCS, Riot Games senior esports coordinator J.T. Vandenbree announced on Twitter Thursday. Vandenbree also added that, at the moment, he could only confirm that the policy will be in place for the NA LCS as "EU makes their own choice on this."
In the past, sister teams such as Cloud9 Challenger and Dignitas EU won LCS slots through promotion tournaments, but because LCS rules restrict organizations from running more than one team in a league, the orgs had to sell the LCS seeds for hefty profits.
Vandenbree specifically says the policy change is to prevent orgs from intentionally "farming" LCS slots for the express intention of selling them. He also says that if a sister team qualifies for a promotion tournament, they will be passed over in favor of the next placed Challenger Series team.
In November, Counter Logic Gaming acquired several members of Team Cloud to form a roster to compete in the NA Challenger Series Open Qualifier. According CLG's head coach, Tony "Zikz" Grey, the team knew about the policy change when they signed the players and they are "dedicated to helping players improve."
"We created our challenger team knowing that the team would not be able to qualify for the LCS promotion tournament even if they won the Challenger Series. Our players signed with us knowing the same thing," Counter Logic Gaming said in a statement on Reddit. "We picked up our players, and they joined us because there was a mutual understanding that the primary goal was player development. They are a part of the CLG organization as much as our LCS players are. We want them to become the best players they can be."
En Europa, será Riot Europa el que decidirá sobre este tema.
