After another exciting competitive year of League of Legends, North America’s new blood will finally get a chance to shine at the 2020 LCS Scouting Grounds event. This time, however, Riot Games has confirmed that it’ll be held as a fully virtual event.
The format for the tournament will remain the same, but teams will be playing from the comfort of their own homes on the same Tournament Realm server. Play will be monitored by league officials through webcams that will be given to all players and all communication will be monitored by Riot referees.
The draft will take place right after the first-place match of Scouting Grounds, where teams will acquire exclusive negotiating rights with whichever player they end up picking. Players don’t need to sign with the team they’re drafted by, though. Teams also have the ability to trade and sell picks as they see fit.
The draft will be held in reverse order of the 2020 LCS Summer Split standings. This allows the teams with the worst records to try to pick up some fresh, budding stars to help kickstart a possible rebuild of their roster.
The draft order for the 2020 Scouting Grounds event is as follows:
Immortals
CLG
Dignitas
100 Thieves
Evil Geniuses
Golden Guardians
Cloud9
Team Liquid
FlyQuest
TSM
Earlier this year, Riot implemented multiple rules to accommodate players due to the pandemic. While most rules remain the same, a few eligibility requirements have been updated to accommodate players amid the COVID-19 pandemic. New changes include an update to champion pool restrictions, as well as some lenience in eligibility criteria.
The “one-trick rule”
Riot explained in its official statement that “because of restrictions under COVID-19, the selection period has been shortened slightly from last year’s.” As a result, the champion pool restrictions now only requires 25 minimum games on four different champions instead of 30 games.
This change prevents players from grinding ranked matches while simultaneously balancing other aspects of life during the global pandemic. Additionally, the “one-trick rule” ensures that selected prospects are multi-faceted and able to use many different champions and styles in-game.
Eligibility for emerging region players
The new rules for the 2020 LCS Scouting Grounds now allow for some former semi-pro and professional players to participate in the event. Previously, players who had appeared in more than two League matches within the past two semi-pro/Academy splits or the past six professional league splits were considered ineligible to play.
