The summer season of North America’s Champions Queue will kick off today in League of Legends, according to Zack “Whoopley” Elliot, the academy director of the LCS.
Some changes will be implemented to Champions Queue, including the addition of MMR to help balance matchmaking and better reflect player skill.
LP gains will be tied to MMR, similar to the standard ladder in the game. A new icon will also be rewarded to the 10 highest-ranking players in the queue at the end of the season. Instead of MMR, LP gains in Champions Queue were originally based on “flat values,” according to Elliot.
Champions Queue is a separate ladder for high-ranked players in North America. It was initially launched in February in time for the 2022 LCS Spring Split, following the official schedule of regional leagues.
The eligible players for this elite ladder are teams from the LCS, LCS Academy, Liga Latinoamérica, the top 16 amateur teams of the regions, and the LCS alumni.
Riot has said it plans to implement some sort of application process to join the queue in the future, but this likely won’t be introduced during this season since no further information has been revealed since the initial announcement.
Cloud99 support Zven won the inaugural season of Champions Queue, earning himself $25,000. The 10 highest-ranked players all won a slice of the prize pool and an exclusive summoner icon to display their achievement.
Over the last season, Champions Queue was popular at its launch, but it faded over time. It’s unclear if Riot has planned to introduce other previously-announced features to help the queue keep its popularity throughout the summer season, such as including more players in the queue and implementing an internal voice chat.
