The 2021 LCS season was the fourth year of North America's

League Championship Series The League Championship Series (LCS) is the semifinal round of postseason play in Major League Baseball which has been conducted since 1969. In 1981, and since 1995, the two annual series have matched up the winners of the Division Series, and ...

, a professional

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league for the

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League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'', under partnership and the ninth overall. The pre-season Lock In tournament began on January 15 and concluded on January 31. The spring regular season began on February 5 and concluded on March 14. The Mid-Season Showdown, which replaced the spring playoffs, began on March 20 and concluded on April 11. The summer regular season began on June 4 and concluded on August 1. The three teams that qualified for the World Championship in 2021 were

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, and

Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...

League changes

Shortly after the conclusion of the 2020 World Championship, Riot Games announced several major changes regarding the league's format. A new, three-week preseason tournament was introduced, titled the ''LCS Lock'' In. The top two teams from the previous season would be able to choose their opponents, selecting them into 2 groups for a play-in group stage. Each group would play in a four-day single Round Robin, with the top four teams from each group being seeded into an eight-team, single-elimination bracket. The winner of the bracket would receive a cash prize of US$150,000, along with a US$50,000 donation to the charity of their choice. The regular season schedule was expanded to five games each day, across three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). The spring playoffs were also replaced with the "Mid-Season Showdown". While the playoff format remained nearly identical to previous seasons, there were three minor changes. The first seed must now always play the fourth seed, rather than choosing their opponent; side selection always goes to the team that most recently dropped from the upper bracket; and ties would now be broken by seeding. The winner of the Mid-Season Showdown would qualify for the

2021 Mid-Season Invitational The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational was the sixth Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), a Riot Games-organised tournament for ''League of Legends'', a multiplayer online battle arena video game. The tournament was the culmination of the 2021 Spring Spli ...

. Standings and team records from the spring regular season would be continued into the summer regular season as opposed to resetting like previous seasons. In January 2021, the league rebranded its logo, featuring a new logo and refreshed visual identity.

Broadcasting

The live English broadcast was available on the LoL Esports website, as well as on

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and

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. A Spanish broadcast was produced by the LCS team

FlyQuest FlyQuest is a professional esports organization based in the United States that was founded on January 6, 2017. It is owned by the Viola family, owners of the Florida Panthers. FlyQuest was originally founded after the acquisition of the ''Lea ...

Lock In

Group stage

; Group A ; Group B

Knockout stage

Spring

Teams and rosters

Regular season

Mid-Season Showdown

Awards

Ranking

Summer

Teams and rosters

Regular season

Playoffs

Awards

Ranking

References

{{2021 in League of Legends competition 2021 in esports 2021 multiplayer online battle arena tournaments League of Legends Championship Series seasons