If you’ve ever dreamed of benching Yiliang “DoubleLift” Peng, now you’ll finally have your chance.
Riot Games revealed their fantasy League Championship Series (LCS) platform yesterday, giving fans the ability to lord over their own squad of professional League of Legends players, and use them to crush their friends.
The format will be familiar to any fantasy football or baseball player, as Riot’s system is based heavily off those popular games.
Fans will be able to set up leagues of four, six, or eight players, invite their friends, draft a roster of 10 players, and clash head-to-head each week until one team is crowned champion.
Competitors will earn points for each player in their starting lineup, based off that week’s performance. Points will be accrued based off stats like Kills, Deaths, Assists, and Creep Score, and whichever lineup posts the highest total wins.
A starting lineup will consist of a typical League roster—top, jungle, mid, ADC, and support—along with Flex spot, filled by a player of any position, and a team. The roster includes three bench spots, but you can only keep two players from each of the five positions listed above.
Teams will be selected in the typical snake draft format, where draft order flips each round (e.g., the person who picks first in one round will pick last the next). And it’s best to be prepared—there’s a one minute pick timer.
The player universe will include both European and North American LCS competitors, so if you’ve ever wanted to pair Henrik “Froggen” Hansen with William “Meteos” Hartman, now is your chance. Though you might be hard pressed to do so, considering both could be first round picks.
There’s no word on whether trading will be included, but considering how closely Riot’s mirrored traditional fantasy sports, it’s a safe bet it’ll be introduced at some point.
Riot’s system isn’t fully online yet, and despite the “DRAFTING BEGINS SOON” sign plastered at the bottom of their fantasy page, there’s no real way to prepare. Spring Split stats aren’t available yet in anything but the individual match format, so it’s kind of tough to value players.
If you want to get started right away, or head-to-head isn’t your cup of tea (or if you don’t have any friends), the Electronic Sports League (ESL) released their own fantasy platform one day ago. Their format has similar scoring rules, but differs in that it’s a global league, pitting you against every other competing player.
