LCS & Americas Update for 2025 | The Dive Driven by Kia Q&A 

Mark is a breath of fresh air for LCS commish. Wtf were all the past commishes doing before him. Mark's experience as previous coach, analyst, on desk talent, hotline league and passion really shows. If anyone can revive LCS it's him.

Riot needs Mark to provide context for all their pro-play decisions going forward, he's one of the very few people there that actually makes me feel like they know what they're doing. He single handedly turned me from thinking this was going to be a disaster, to actually being kinda excited for the changes.

having mark really makes you wonder what the previous commish were doing

We better not lose the lcs theme song. It’s so hype.

I...just wanna give Mark a big fucking hug. He's actually the goat. Im genuinely so satisfied with the answers he gave that i quite literally cant think of anymore questions to ask.

Mark continually reinforces my happiness/excitement of him being the commissioner

I really appreciate Azael bringing up a lot of long term concerns with the new format. Honestly having more than 1 rotating team and letting the best performing one keep their spot would plug a lot of the holes

People need to read between the lines: this is not a choice between this change and the LCS of the past. It's an adapt or die situation.

One thing I really appreciated was how the Dive analysts didn't hold back at all. Of course they were respectful and understood that there were many more factors at play besides just Mark making all the decisions by himself but they asked and said exactly the concerns that were on their mind.

This also helps t2 orgs like DSG that wanted to move up but couldn't. Unless they spent millions of dollars to buy out a slot. Which is really cool actually

Before watching the entire video, the section "why are these changes happening?" really made sense when the focus is on global changes in how they distribute money to teams.

that LRP to GRP change is by far the biggest change in esports history

Mark Z seems to be performing well as commissioner. Truly enjoy the insight.

Mark is crushing it, and I hope he feels the love from the community. Genuinely appreciate his contributions, transparency, as well as actual passion for the sport/game.

Mark #1 best commish

dammit, even as a markz fan I came into this hoping to catch him saying something stupid but he was so articulate and correct about everything how am i supposed to comment on that.

Okay if ALL the major regions are getting 3 slots to worlds I'm not too mad about LCS losing a spot. That's a bunch of minor regions cut out

people not understanding that this was mainly an econonic decision is lowkey driving me crazy. I'll wait to judge the how its going til we get there, this is such a massive change that it's not gonna be possible to judge how well its working until we've seen a full season.

All I'm excited for Is the fearless draft! People complain about using the same champs? Here we go!

Actually a massive fan of the change - from a format perspective this is really cool. Not too torn up about the lack of slots for LCS - hopefully this will REALLY drive the best possible rosters together so that the 1 team we do send ends up being worthwhile.

Thankful Mark is at least getting in front of this and addressing it. I’m old enough to remember the move to weekdays with no explanation as to why and the following doomer opinions that formed after. Could definitely see something similar happening here if he and the LCS didn’t explain the reasoning behind this move at all

Nah you can’t be teasing me with this short dive episode I need moreeeee

Continually impressed by Mark as the commish, and it shows the team supporting him, and those working with him do an incredible job so he can be so well-informed for public facing events. Kudos.

Cautiously optimistic should be the approach for fans of this regions imo. Liking what I'm hearing as an LCK fan but have to see how they handle it.

I just hope things finally become truly stable.

They really should make team specific skins for regional team winners, that would raise SO much money for teams and raise the incentives to win. Even just the MVP of the winning team would be fine, since Riot probably doesn't want to make 25 skins per year

MarkZ is doing miracle work as commissioner. This new system is very strange but you can tell a lot of thought and care went into it. I think this is the best possible path forward for the LCS.

LLA and CBLOL literally got eliminated as fast as possible at MSI…

I'm down to every change that help competitive League to keeps on going, been a fan since start, i love watching lol matchs and events! so i just hopes this really works!

Hey @LCS, Markz is killing it with these updates, how open he is, the details he can give. He KNOWS what is going on and shares as much as he can without the feel of "Corporate Slug". This is the kind of person LCS needed, and LoL Esports could definitely benefit from more MarkZ (President of Esports when?)

Very exciting to have different formats across splits. I hope for one of the later split formats they bring back swiss bracket bo3 like 2023 worlds. That format brought so many close matchups.

Really liking adding that third import slot for "Americas" players. Its a nice balance between maintaining regional identity while still allowing movement between the north and south conferences.

I'll be honest maybe my age is getting to me but Mark really addressed my fears and calmed some of the building negative feelings about the changes.

I will say I would really love an English cast for CBLOL, similar to how we have one for LCK and LPL. I'm sure the viewer payoff would be low at first but I think it would help build "Americas" unity.

"Is the LCK fourth seed better than this...?" Deft and Co. made a statement there.

Massive props to Mark for all that he's done as commish, especially considering he's only been here for a bit over a split. But my only question is why is each America region only 8 teams? Having 8 total teams and only 1 LLA team per region feels a bit cramped, surely each region could fit at least 10 teams right?

Damn I’ve never been this early to the dive

For all the talk about CBLOL being an unknown - if you've ever watched CBLOL games within their own division, it is some of the craziest, most entertaining games. Including the broadcast. I'm not mad we're getting more exposure to a division with real personality. Their ability to perform internationally is completely different, but regionally, CBLOL is a gem.

Mark speaks so fast hahah, i thought I had my video on 1.5 speed

Azael grilling MarkZ and MarkZ providing answers. Love it.

If impact wins next three splits, and you change the name from lcs, graphic can say 6 time lcs champ 3 time north conference champ

Oh snap its the GOAT COMMISSIONER MARKZ

It’s crazy when the commissioner doesn’t give PR only answers. He definitely redirects the questions he can’t answer, but he does it in a way to still give information and not to shut down the question. Mark is the best thing to happen to the LCS.

I have so much faith in Mark. Like he seems like someone SO genuine just trying to make the best out of all the politics of the system WHILE bridging the gap in communication to fans. I know it's a lot of changes coming up, but I have faith in his long term vision and if it takes us some crazy places along the way, I'm here for it.

I appreciate Mark coming to the Dive and being transparent

The Guest team slot from tier 2 is a great concept but it doesn't go far enough with only one team and one relegation the whole year. I'd remove another LCS slot and replace it with another Guest slot so that there's 2 Guest slots in the league. Then I'd have a relegation/promotion Bo5 each split between the winner of the tier 2 split and the worst performing Guest slot team. This'd allow greater opportunities for tier 2 teams to get into the league _and_ create an instant rivalry between the Guest slot teams leading to more hype matchups and a competition within a competition for those teams. (Great episode btw. Mark doing great.)

Fans be mad about the changes but there ain't KR or CH or EU viewership or equivalent sponsorship money in NA. Hopefully these changes keep the league from folding entirely and leads to more sustainable expansion down the road.

While my personal opinion may be tarnished a bit when I find out what teams will be leaving the scenes; talent being condensed and more cross-culture competition will hopefully make both leagues stronger and more importantly provide a more sustainable esports ecosystem. GRP should mean we also get to bank on the crazy whales in other regions to sustain the league of legends competition as a whole rather than just that specific league. (Assuming it actually does get invested back into the scene as said)

So... on one hand, I'm glad to see some of these changes. I think some teams coasted (which makes 0 sense to me) in the LCS and never tried to improve and, even worse, some PLAYERS played just good enough to hold a spot. With spots decreasing, now is the time for players to step up, to make sure their spot is secured. On the other hand... I understand the CBLoL and LLAs frustrations. They've put so much into their region. Yes, they may not perform great internationally (like we can talk), but it's always about the regional experience for them and to lose some of that will be rough. I'm going to assume some of the bottom feeders in CBLoL are going away, which should help improve the quality of the product. There's good and bad here. I'm not as excited for 2025 as I was for 2024, but I think a lot of that comes down to which 2 LCS teams are going away.

Mark surpasses my expectations every time. This guy is an impressively effective communicator.

40:14 is this a cut? Did they cut in post for this question?

Very big changes, but I think could be very exciting. I'm glad CBLOL will keep a lot of their identity even with the consolidation finally hitting them the way it has hit APAC and other regions with the number of overall teams being reduced. I would have been upset if the CBLOL and LCS had been made into 1, 10-team league or something. This feels like a good compromise, but time will tell

Look at Mark savin the LCS

What is going to stop the LLA team from becoming just another NA team one split later?

mark is pretty good at talking. good person to have speaking on the behalf of your company.

I’m just confused on the world’s spots. The americas only have 3 world spots now for 16 teams. That doesn’t make sense to me we double in teams but still only have three slots? Or is there still play in spots?

It was a great move to speed up Mark to 1.5x to fit the show into an hour! 👍 😉

Meteos is such a bundle of energy and enthusiasm! 😄

My thought on the tier 2 team that succeeds. Why don't we have two tutu teams that go up? Then the relegation can be for the worst performing tier 2 team while the better one gets assured safety for the following year

Does the first split eliminate the Kespa Cup?

Do we have English casts of the Brazil games? (sorry not sure what they will be called)

Am I understanding correctly? The guest spot gets won every year and then loss as soon as the year is over even if the guest team wins LCS. Is that correct? Seems dumb. If a 2nd tier team does better than a franchised team it doesn't seem right that the 2nd tier gets relegated anyway. I think the setup should be that there are 3 guest slots, but 1 slot opens up per year as needed (up to 3 max). Then the bottom two teams in LCS get relegated IF they are not a franchise team - so year 1 the guest has 2x chances to be relegated. If the guest team doesn't fall into the last 2 places, no team gets relegated and another guest spot opens up the next year. This pattern repeats until all 3 guest spots are filled. If all 3 are filled, the lowest ranked guest team will be relegated even if they didn't come into the bottom two and no guest slots are lost. If two guest teams out of 3 are in the bottom 2, both are relegated and 1 guest slot is loss. If two guest teams out of 2 are in the bottom 2, then both are kicked and 1 guest slot is lost. This is done to only ever allow 1 guest into LCS per year (up to a max of 3). Franchised teams will obviously never be relegated. I think this way there is potential for teams to make it into the LCS and stay if they are good, and also guest teams can be removed and added more organically. Then if a franchised team always makes bottom 2 when there are 3 guest teams they should be kicked from franchise or sell their spot.

I really like the change, if anything, wouldn't this make our current teams more competitive in worlds? Players from other Americas wouldn't be considered an import, meaning more opportunities.

THANK YOU MARK FOR THESE NEW CHANGES 🔥🔥🔥

So we will see games like Brazil team vs na team throughout the season ?

First, I just want to say how much I appreciate Mark coming on this program and answering questions that could not have been easy to answer, and I appreciate his candor with it. I'd also like to ask or maybe say that it feels like CB LOL is having to sacrifice the most just to help a floundering LCS. Is this a correct opinion? Or maybe I just don't understand?

In the scenario where a guest team wins the league or even does super well I imagine the standing orgs would be incentivized to try and buy those players/their entire roster.

Mark needs to be the PR person for Riot. This man makes SO much sense.

Assuming GRP and the Americas system works, can the conferences grow? Or will we be locked by fear of unsustainability and keep it at 8 teams per conference?

Losing international spots for lcs is what makes this extra bad. Why combine na and Brazil, no inherent rivalry, just not a good change

So no more NA vs EU for a worlds spot?? With the two regions being so close recently that was the best content to look forward to and now it's gone again? The inter conference is not a substitute.

Fearless is going to be so good for everything

I got to say, this is extremely exciting. I am fully on board with those changes and I really enjoy direct communication like Mark Z has been doing

The conference structure (while a much older sport) slowly developed and succeeds in the NFL here in the US. I could definitely see the two conferences slowly build up and allow for even more cross play between conferences as more normal during splits rather than just islands before Internationals

Dang, it seems MarkZ actually has a chance to win best commissioner divey award this split.

The guest spot is so cool I love this change

these are the fresh changes LOL needed

Something I didn't see mentioned.....is that I am assuming we get technically half of what the other 4 regions are getting for funds in NA and Brazil? Because if the 5 major regions get split evenly with the GRP thing, and we are the only one to split ourselves to make 2 leagues out of it...we get half the resources per "America" than every other league gets...So I assume we pay the least? Have the least to put towards broadcast? etc

Mark = best commissioner yet

54:07 I totally disagree. Brazil and NA are not in equal footing, cause USD worth way more than BRL, so NA will have an easy time getting our best players to be the Americas slot, but we'll not be able to do the same cause we don't have the same capital power as NA teams, probably being able to pay only the tier 2 or 3 from NA in a way that don't destroys the team's budget, and this will make it way harder to a Brazilian team to create a good team to win against NA than the other way around. So basically we get nothing but hardship, and now there is even a possibility that the LLA team, depending on the roster, get to win the South Conference, then we from Brazil don't even go to international championships.

I love you mark! Keep up the great work

I'm from latam and only really watch lcs for you guys, i'm down for getting invested in teams from my region and watching you talk about them

I, like mostly everyone else, want to thank Mark for doing this. My biggest problem is that I left with more questions than I came into this with. I appreciate the sentiment but Riot on both the LCS and Global scale have not had a great track record on delivering on their promises. There were a lot of half-baked ideas that didn’t have good answers. Fans need assurances when being asked to take such a large leap of faith. How will Riot ensure that the funds being parsed out from the GRP are going to the right places? This applies to the “guest” teams and other regions where infrastructure is lacking to actually give amateur players a fighting chance. What steps is Riot taking to ensure teams have properly managed coaching and internal affairs. Another issue is that LCS feels like they’re losing a lot because there is a lack of assurances that the Americas is being treated as a single region since there is a lack of cross pollination. Riot has shown that they prefer to pull back on travels and expenditures. How are we supposed to believe that the South and North are one region when historically Riot won’t shell out money to sponsor big events and are even making cutbacks locally in non-international events? I’m hopeful for these changes, I love the idea of having a growing story across the 3 splits and I will wait for answers but there do need to be answers.

Wonder if Mark will be commissioner of both the overall Americas Region or if he will be a conference commish and Brazil have their own?

Where is the line drawn for regional representation? The Americas merged, but there's a gaurantee for international spots by conference? Why is this different from APAC/PCS? Taiwan, Japan, OCE, Hong Kong, Veitnam etc merged but there isn't a gaurantee there?

I'm excited for TSM in LCS South, xD

Great episode!

Did they cover where the games are going to be played? Are the non-US teams needing to relocate to LA, or will there be weekly travel back and forth similar other traditional sports?

Damn I wanted Immortals and Shopify Rebellion was the 2 to go!

TBH I think it should be possible for the LCS to have every slot if they earn it. I don't see the benefit of guaranteeing CBLOL the world's slot and denying NA one. It's insulting to both regions and actually lessens the hype for CBLOl teams that would go in the future.

I like the changes overall. Hoping it leads to a more sustainable ecosystem. MarkZ is the best Commisioner

Mark saving LCS

Honestly kinda feels like the 2 LLA teams should move to LCS and then have 2 rotating spots so that NA stays more competitive and CBLOL gets to keep their community

god i love mark. in terms of the actual changes announced, i think this is great for lcs but shafts lla and cblol, so i understand if they are upset. as an lcs fan excited for the future.

Pplease give Meteos more moments to talk, I know you guys were the three amigos but Meteos is the goat and I see him in the corner being so quiet :(

Tier 2 FUGITIVE GAMING ARC "We're probably gonna win 7 championships"

Great show

As someone whos pretty iffy on these changes, I really hope they don't change the LCS name. Dunno why, but I just really like it and changing that would suck for me.

24:43 This is exactly what you want, why would Mark be concerned about this? The players are what matters, not the tier 2 orgs. It is called a guest spot for a reason, that tier 2 org was never going to stay in the tier 1 league long term regardless. The goal is for these players to force their way into LCS through the tier 2 guest spot since the franchised orgs didn't give them a chance. You then prove that you belong in the LCS by playing well, and then hopefully you get an offer from a franchised org which would open up that guest spot again for the next wave of up and coming tier 2 pros. Rinse and repeat. The goal shouldn't be to keep these tier 2 players stuck on the guest org. That just clogs the only slot that bridges the gap between tier 1 and tier 2.

Great explanations