LCS schedule and how it can effect results

Throughout every single split there are bound to be ups and downs; from drama behind the scenes to swings in the standings there is usually something changing in the 9 weeks it takes to complete a standard LCS split. However the real question remains how can the schedule of these 9 weeks have any significant impact on result, shouldn’t the players be able to beat anyone at any time?

An interesting example is the schedule of TSM, the time between their games against NME and C9 is actually immense…in fact its the longest it could possibly be! TSM’s week 1 and week 9 schedule are actually exactly the same (the only difference being which day they play). While these seems rather innocuous it can be a massive game changer due to how much not only the teams themselves change but how much the game itself changes and what is possibly troubling is how often this happens in the LCS.

As you can see by the mess of a chart above there are 10 instances of teams having to wait 8 full weeks between rematches and conversely having to wait approximately 3 patches of change before meeting again. The opposite instance is also quite common, occurring 10 times as well.

One of the major reasons why i believe that this is so detrimental is the frequency of major patches that dramatically change the game and the occurrence of personality issues within teams living together, especially in newly formed rosters etc.

If we want the LCS to really exemplify “competitive integrity” like I’m sure we all want it to the first step should be to make a more standard schedule where we aim to minimize the dramatically large and small gaps between the two matches played against the same team. Without this change we are left wondering if teams would have done differently had the schedule made certain match-ups on certain patches or had kept only a single match on a less favorable patch.

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