Widely considered as one of the strongest upcoming regions in League of Legends, with many participations in international tournaments such as the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship, Turkey’s Champions League – the country’s premier LoL league - will follow the pattern of both European and North American LCS as well as the Chinese LPL by adopting a franchise system next year.

In an announcement on the official LoL Esports Turkey website, Riot Games said that the decision was made to build a long-term structure for all viewers and fans. The current model with relegations makes it difficult for organizations to create any sort of long-term planning. Afraid of losing their spot – and all investments made – organizations were incentivized to seek reactive and instantaneous results instead of aiming for sustainable growth. Among other things, this would negatively affect the development of upcoming talent:

“(As organizations focus on short-term results), the talented but inexperienced player rarely find himself in the league,” said Riot, while adding that “we expect that the investments made by the teams along with the change will lead to elements that will shape the future of the company, such as staffing young talents, establishing training facilities and new working methods.”


Familiar stakes

Similarly to both NA and EU LCS, 10 teams will compete in the franchised TCL. Partnerships with each team will be up to evaluation every three years – meaning that teams who frequently perform poorly are at risk of being expelled from the league. Furthermore, an Academy League will be established, with the hope that future talent can be properly developed – without the pressure the big league so often offers.

Riot’s explanation for the creation of an Academy League is an obvious one:

“Teams often can’t play with a young and inexperienced player in an environment where every lost game raises the risk of falling from the league, but right now, there is not an organization for young players to gain experience. As a solution to this issue, we are designing an Academy League to be included in every team in the league. We want a structure in which every team will have a bigger roster- from 5 to 10 - and players in the main roster who are performing poorly can potentially be replaced by players from below.”

Applications for the league will open up on June 20th, with organizations having until August 20th to submit paperwork and their plans. From September 15th, applicants that were approved will be invited for face-to-face interviews. Finally, on November 15th, the 10 organizations chosen will be announced and all contracts will be signed.


Current Turkish Champs

Powered by the dynamic Korean duo composed by GBM and SnowFlower (just two of the 17 Koreans who played during the recent Winter Season), SuperMassive are current Turkish Champions.  They dominated the regular season after achieving a nearly flawless 26-2 record, defeating Team AURORA and Royal Bandits to win the championship. This earned SuperMassive a spot at this year’s Mid-Season Invitational, where they, despite convincingly winning their Play-in group, couldn’t clinch a spot at the main event following a 3-1 loss to Vietnam’s EVOS.

Photo courtesy of Riot Games