If you’re a collegiate esports star, you already missed your chance to play in the year’s biggest competition. But for the first time, you’ll be able to watch collegiate matches weekly. The next evolution of collegiate esports in League of Legends was announced today.
The uLoL Campus Series is this year’s version of the North American Collegiate Championship, the college competition run by Riot Games in each of the past two years. The new campus series will use a league structure that will, for the first time, feature an officially broadcast match each week, following the League Championship Series (LCS).
The top eight teams in each of four regions, with those determined through an open qualifier already held in November of last year, will compete in four conferences with the top four teams earning berths in the playoffs. Teams will play a round robin format, facing every team in their conference once in a best-of-two series.
Each week, beginning on Jan. 16, one key match will be aired on Saturday night when the LCS is completed. After the regular season concludes on Feb. 27, the Conference Semifinals and Finals will follow in March. Then, on April 23 and 24, the Championship will decide just who the best collegiate League of Legends team really is.
The first match, set for Jan. 16, will feature Robert Morris University, the first school to offer scholarships for esports, and Michigan State. Last year, RMU reached the NACC final, but fell to the University of British Columbia. Both are favorites to win their respective conferences again this year, but dozens of other top schools are competing in the uLoL Campus Series, which promisesÂ
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr
