2019 CC Day 1
01

Introduction

With school back in session, it’s finally time to start talking about the 2020 College LoL Season. We wanted to first take a moment to recap the 2019 season, as the momentum behind the growth of college League of Legends continues to astound us.

Last season broke almost every record we’ve ever recorded.

  • 354 schools competed in the 2019 season, up from 311 in 2018 and 246 in 2017
  • Over 250+ schools now offer some form of official support to their League team, ranging from on campus practice facilities to coaches and scholarships
  • Scholarships distributed directly by schools to League of Legends players more than doubled from around $2.1MM in 2018 to $4.5MM in 2019
  • We partnered with 6 athletic conferences, up from 2 in 2018, to bring conference championships for League of Legends to their schools
  • State Farm extended their presenting sponsorship with the League of Legends College Championship through 2021
  • On average, 25,003 fans watched the 2019 College Championship at the same time (Average Minute Audience), compared with 17,614 fans in 2018 – a growth of 41.95%. 
  • The concurrent audience of the Championship peaked at 41,307 fans, which is 21% up from 2018’s 34,125
  • Finally, the number of hours viewed during the 2019 College Championship was up a whopping 81% from the 2018 Championship

Additionally, the 2019 season also meant the launch of the RSAA, a major milestone for college League of Legends meant to usher in the next round of maturity and growth for college esports.

These milestones wouldn’t be possible without the continued support of the League of Legends community, club officers, competitors, and university administrators across the US and Canada. Now, let’s dive in to 2020!

02

Season Overview

As with every year, we’re building on the same core structure as previous seasons:

  • Four regional conferences (North, South, East, and West) competing in a six-week Swiss Format regular season, with 6-0 and 5-1 teams advancing to the playoffs
  • An expanding group of partner athletic conferences (some old, some new) competing in their own season formats
  • Conference playoffs and championships that advance schools into the College Championship
  • An 8-school College Championship finals event to crown the best school in North America
  • A Teemo Cup for teams that miss the playoffs to keep playing and compete for RP prizes
  • A Streamer Program to connect independent streamers with college teams and hosting a weekly stream listing on our website
  • Full champion unlocks for all rostered players for the duration of the season

We’re still putting the finishing touches on the 2020 rules, but you can check out last year’s rules and Regional Conference Format for a good baseline. We’ll be releasing the full 2020 rules and format when registration opens on November 1st.

03

New For 2020

10-Player Rosters

We’re increasing the maximum size of the Active Roster to 10 players, from 6, giving schools more options on match day. As the college scene has matured and more varsity programs have come online, schools have started developing deeper benches and have put a greater emphasis on developing future talent and we want our rules to match. We want to give schools the tools to make more meaningful game day decisions, and remove some of the roster rigidness that led to last-minute forfeits and extra administrative work.

College Championship Expansion

We’re expanding the College Championship to a 32-school bracket. The first two rounds will be played online, then the top 8 will compete at a live event for the final rounds. We’ll also be removing the Championship Play-In phase completely, with teams moving directly from their Conference Playoffs into the Championship bracket. We’ll announce specifics about seeding and the number of teams per conference when registration goes live in November.

Scholarships Moved to Championship

We’re aligning Riot-awarded scholarships with the new Championship format (shifting away from conference performance), awarding more players and staff per team, including all partner conference schools in the opportunity to earn scholarships, increasing the highest tier of scholarship award, and reducing the overall scholarship dollars awarded. Here’s the distribution for the 2020 College Championship:

Place

Per Player

Per Sub / Staff

1st

$10,000

$5,000

2nd

$6,000

$3,000

3rd-4th

$3,000

$1,500

5th-8th

$2,000

$1,000

9th-16th

$1,000

$500

 

Since we first introduced the College Championship in 2014, Riot has distributed more than $3,900,000 in scholarships to hundreds of students across North America. As we head into 2020, schools are collectively investing more than $4,500,000 in student scholarships each year for League of Legends. With school-funded scholarships now dwarfing Riot’s scholarships, our investment has become relatively less impactful each year. 

Additionally, Riot-funded scholarships were previously tied to the regional conferences, which excluded our expanding pool of athletic conference partners from scholarship opportunities. In the case of our first conference partner, the Big Ten Network, Riot was directly funding scholarships for all participating players, but this model was not scalable as the number of partner conferences grew.

We recognize this is a significant change, one that we’ve been evaluating for over a year, and we’re confident that this is the right step forward for the continued growth of College LoL.

04

Registration

During the month of November, registration will be open for club officers and varsity team administrators. You’ll need to provide info for at least five players, your school name, a team logo, and complete a few eligibility forms to get your team squared away. More detailed information about the registration process will be provided when registration opens.

Are you a registered club officer or varsity program lead? A link to the registration page on Battlefy will be emailed to you this afternoon. We’ll be sending out periodic reminders, so if you register your club late, you can still receive the follow-up emails we’ll send out on November 15 and November 26. Be sure to read and understand the eligibility section of the official rules before you sign up to avoid any mistakes! You can also join the official season Discord to get live help with the registration process from Battlefy staff.

Are you a player that wants to get involved? Get in touch with your local club by checking out the Find-A-Club page.

Registration is open from now until November 30th at 11:59pm PT.

Didn’t get the registration link? Email us at collegiate@riotgames.com and we’ll take care of you.

05

Important Dates

  • Registration: November 1 – November 30
  • Regional Regular Season*: January 20 – March 1
  • Regional Playoffs*: March 2 – March 29
  • Teemo Cup: March 9 – April 12
  • College Championship: TBD, April-June

*These dates only apply to Regional Conferences – Partner Conferences will have their own schedule and format to be announced in the future.

06

What’s Next?

We’ll be launching finalized rules and format details on 11/1, when registration opens. In the meantime, make sure you’re either registered as a club or signed up for the RSAA Mailing List to be the first to know when more information is live.

Welcome to the mailing list!