Riot Games announced over the weekend that the 2019 LCS Spring Finals would be taking place in St. Louis, Missouri. Changes to the event format include the removal of the 3rd/4th place match, and in its place, a fan fest extravaganza will take place the day before Finals. Riot also announced that the 2019 Mid-Season Invitiational would be taking place across southeast Asia. 

Chris "Riot Chopper" Hopper, Head of NA esports at Riot Games, sat down with InvenGlobal to discuss the 2019 LCS Spring Final, format changes and their potential effects on Worlds Qualification, and MSI 2019. 

How did you decide on St. Louis as the finals location?

We've wanted to come back to the Midwest for some time now; we stopped through during the Quarterfinals of Worlds back in 2016, but there are too many passionate fans in the region for us to not come back. Knowing that, we've consistently been looking at venues across the Midwest that align with our event dates, and with the size of the event that we are targeting (e.g., larger, NBA-style venues for Summer, smaller venues for Spring).

Finding Chaifetz checked all of our initial boxes, and when we looked at the number of fans in the area in and around St. Louis, it was an easy decision to lock in that venue.


Can you tell us a bit about Chaifetz Arena? 

Chaifetz Arena is the home arena for St. Louis University, and regularly hosts basketball matches, concerts, and other major activities. It can seat approximately 10,500 fans at maximum, but given the needs of our stage design and removing seats with poor sightlines, we will probably be more in the 8,000-9,000 range for our show.

The arena is right in the middle of SLU campus and is centrally located in Midtown St. Louis, so there should be plenty of hotels, restaurants, and other venues for the fans to enjoy over Finals weekend.

Is there anything specific planned for the fan fest that we can look forward to?

Nothing that we can share at the moment, as we are still negotiating with the venue to make sure we can deliver the experience we want.

What I can say is what we hope to deliver: a fan-focused event with involvement from all ten LCS teams, pros, sponsors, media, and Riot itself. Whether it be meeting LCS pros and getting your picture, buying the newest esports merch, checking out our community's brilliant cosplays, or just celebrating the spectacle of the Finals, we think there will be something for everyone at this event.


There will be no more 3rd/4th place match. Does that mean only the finals teams will be in attendance in St. Louis?

It means that only the finals teams will be playing in St. Louis, but we hope that other teams will participate in the fan fest (pending venue negotiations). While the Finals match is certainly focused on honoring the top two teams of the Split, the weekend should also be able to celebrate the culmination of a great Split, and that should include all participating teams.


How will Rift Rivals and Circuit Points for Worlds qualification be decided with the elimination of the 3rd place match?

We are still finalizing the format for Worlds qualification given the removal of the Spring 3rd place match; the immediate change will be to equalize the points for 3rd and 4th place in Spring. Further decisions will be made when we figure out whether we want to hold the 3rd/4th place match in Summer, which we will be declaring soon.


How were locations chosen for MSI 2019?

Similar to our decision-making around where to bring Spring Split Finals, we knew that we wanted to bring a major event to Southeast Asia, and with the success of launching the Vietnam Championship Series, it was clear that the region is ready to host.

We knew we wanted to cover three different venues, however, and with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City locked in, we felt that Taipei was a great supplement to round out the event. We haven't been back to Taipei since the Group Stage of Worlds in 2014, and for a region with such history (the home of the Season Two Champions, Taipei Assassins!), it was more than time to come back.


Are there any plans laid out for Worlds 2019?

The team is hard at work making sure that Worlds 2019 continues to build on the spectacle of past years' events and delights fans in the arena and at home watching. We are incredibly excited about the Finals coming to Paris, at the AccorHotels Arena, and some of our other stops are going to highlight the great audiences to be found all across Europe.

More information will surely be coming over the course of the year, but at this point in the schedule, we're focused a bit more on Spring Split and MSI.