The 2016 NA LCS season was the fourth year of the North American ''League of Legends'' Championship Series. It was divided into spring and summer splits, each consisting of a regular season and playoff stage. Regular season games were played in the

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...

Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Format

Teams compete in a double round robin tournament over the course of nine weeks during the regular season, with matches being best-of-three. The top six teams from the regular season advanced to the playoff stage, with the top two teams receiving a bye to the semifinals. The seventh place team qualifies for the next split of the LCS but does not participate in playoffs. The bottom three teams play in a promotion/relegation tournament against the top two

NA Challenger Series The ''League of Legends'' Challenger Series (CS) were two professional ''League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published ...

teams. Playoffs were single-elimination and matches were best-of-five. The winner of the summer split automatically qualified for the 2016 World Championship, while the team with the most cumulative championship points from the spring and summer splits also qualified for World Championship. A final team, the winner of the regional finals, also qualified for the World Championship.

Offseason changes

As the team with the worst record in the 2015 NA LCS Summer regular season,

Team Dragon Knights Team Dragon Knights, briefly known as Team Arena Online, was an American professional ''League of Legends'' team. For most of its history the team competed in the North American ''League of Legends'' Challenger Series, but was briefly in the No ...

was automatically relegated to the

. As the eighth and ninth team places respectively,

Team 8 Team 8 was a professional ''League of Legends'' team that competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series. On October 7, 2015, Team 8's spot was acquired by Immortals, which began competing under the new name starting with t ...

and Enemy eSports were obligated to play in a promotion tournament against the second and third place Challenger teams, who were

Team Coast Team Bianchi was a makeshift team that was put together from the remnants of the Coast team in time for the 2003 Tour de France. Team Coast had been unable to pay the salaries of their riders and Bianchi took over the team and the role of tit ...

and

Team Imagine Martin Shkreli (; born March 17, 1983) is an American former hedge fund manager. Shkreli is the co-founder of the hedge funds Elea Capital, MSMB Capital Management, and MSMB Healthcare; the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of ...

respectively. Enemy was relegated after losing to Coast 3–0, but Team 8 beat Imagine 3–1 to remain in the LCS. The two teams that won the Promotion matches both sold their spots to other teams before the start of the spring split. The

LA Renegades Renegades is an American professional esports organization. It has teams competing in ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Fortnite'', ''Overwatch'', '' Super Smash Bros.'', ''Rocket League'', '' iRacing'' and '' Valorant ...

were automatically promoted by winning the

. A total of three teams, Team Coast, Team 8, and

Gravity Gaming Gravity Gaming (also known as Team Gravity) was a North American ''League of Legends'' team that competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). The team was originally known as Curse Academy and was the second team of ...

sold their NA LCS spots, all to new esports organizations that had been created for the sole purpose of being in the LCS. Team Coast sold their spot to

NRG eSports NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in '' Apex Legends'', '' Clash Royale'', ''Dragon Ball FighterZ'', '' Fortnite'', ''Gears of War'', ''Hearthstone'', ''Overwatch'', '' Rocket League ...

, Team 8 sold their spot to

Immortals Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...

, and Gravity's spot was sold to

Echo Fox Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015, by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming. The organization had expanded into various g ...

Team Impulse Team Impulse (TiP) was a professional ''League of Legends'' team that competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). The team was previously known as LMQ and was founded as a sister team to Royal Club that compet ...

had announced their intentions to sell their spot, but failed to do so prior to the original deadline deadline. However, after the Spring Split, Team Impulse managed to sel it's spot to

Phoenix1 Sentinels is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. The organization was founded as ''League of Legends'' team Phoenix1 and competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). In June 2018, ...

just before the start of the Summer Split.

Spring

Teams and rosters

Regular season

† NRG Esports won the tiebreaker over Team SoloMid due to head-to-head matchup in the regular season.

Playoffs

The 2016 NA LCS Spring finals saw a rematch of the previous split's finals between

Team SoloMid Team SoloMid (TSM) is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in ''League of Legends'', ''Dota 2'', ''Apex Legends'', ''Valorant'', ' ...

and

Counter Logic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) is an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a ''League of Legends'' team, and has sin ...

. The finals were played in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

at the

Mandalay Bay Events Center The Michelob Ultra Arena, formerly the Mandalay Bay Events Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts In ...

Bracket

Summer

Teams and rosters

Regular season

† Team Envy won the tiebreaker over Apex Gaming due to head-to-head matchup in the regular season.

Playoffs

The summer finals were held at the

Air Canada Centre Scotiabank Arena ( French: ''Aréna Scotiabank)'', formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in the South Core district of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Rap ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the first time an NA LCS match had been played outside of the United States.

Bracket

Regional finals

References

{{League of Legends Championship Series League of Legends Championship Series seasons North American League of Legends Championship North American League of Legends Championship North American League of Legends Championship 2016 in Toronto