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LCS and CBLOL to reportedly return in 2026
Towards the tail end of 2024, Riot Games announced a major change for League of Legends in the Americas region, specifically a gathering of three longstanding brands at the time – the LCS, CBLOL and LLA – into a new League of Americas (or LTA). The League was then separated into two parts – North and South, with North American teams competing in the former and Brazilian and Latin American teams competing in the South.
Less than a year into the project that was met with repeated resounding fan disapproval, it has now been reported (initially by Thiago "Djoko" Maia) that the leagues will once again dissolve back into the LCS and CBLOL for the 2026 season.
A Decade of History, Restored?
The LCS and CBLOL brands are two of most storied in League of Legends competitive history. When Riot Games first attempted to establish a self-run professional league for competitive play back in 2013, the LCS was formed. This allowed teams from Europe, and the US to compete in two separate regional leagues, the EU LCS and the NA LCS.
The EU counterpart would later transform into the LEC brand we all recognize today, while the NA brand became the centrepiece of professional League of Legends for many years after its formation.
CBLOL, for its part, was founded even earlier, with the first tournament organized in 2012. However, its first championship truly launched in 2014 and went on strong until its closure in 2024 with the creation of the LTA.
A Failed Ambition
Riot’s ambitions for a combined league for the Americas region fell massively short of their own expectations. Despite the efforts of Riot, viewership and reception to the league continued to plummet as the year went on. Mark Zimmerman, commissioner of the LTA, outlined his own vision for the LTA shortly before the first season launched, and while expectations ranged from chagrined to lukewarm on the fan side, the final result with the closing of the Summer season was a resounding “no” from the viewers.
The efforts, in Riot’s defence, did not come without reason. The LCS’ formerly high viewership of yesteryears no longer delivered, and the league was very clearly slowly dying out from lack of viewer interest. Looking to capitalize on the CBLOL’s passionate fanbase, Riot seized on a chance to save their flagship product by merging the two.
Unfortunately, it appears to have instead only spread the poison to both chalices as even former CBLOL fans found themselves turned away with complaints of the new format taking away from viewing their teams, the loss of their own league’s identity, even a failure to deliver on the ultimate vision of the LTA, which was to promote more cross-regional play between the North and the South.
Along with the return of these two historic brands, additional changes are expected to be in store for 2026 and a further announcement could be expected later tonight at the LTA 2025 Championship Finals between FlyQuest and Vivo Keyd Stars.
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Featured Image Credit: Riot Games
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