Riot Games has announced that the fifth season of the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) will kick off on 19 January 2024. Eight teams will be participating in a cross-regional esport league spanning Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.
Carry Live Co. together with Riot Game has also announced that the PCS 2024 Spring Split will be broadcast live on all official PCS channels. Taking place every Thursday / Friday to Sunday at 5 PM GMT+8, the tournament will span 12 weeks, including the PCS Playoffs. Many renowned players such as Karsa and SwordArt have returned to the PCS in the offseason, promising intense competition and raising the level of play in the region.
Starting next season, the PCS ecosystem will be expanding to include the League of Legends Japan League (LJL). The LJL will continue to play its domestic season in Japan. Then, the top three teams from LJL will be seeded into the PCS Playoffs, competing alongside teams from PCS and the top two teams from the League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO). All teams will be competing for an opportunity to participate in global tournaments such as MSI and Worlds.
Participating PCS teams for the 2024 Spring Split are:
● Beyond Gaming (BYG)
● CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO)
● Deep Cross Gaming (DCG)
● Frank Esports (FAK)
● Hell Pigs (HPS)
● PSG Talon (PSG)
● Taipei J Team (JT)
● West Point Esports (WP)
PSG Academy and Nate9527 who were promoted through the Pacific Challengers League last season, will not be competing in the upcoming PCS season. With an eight-team league, the PCS will see several format changes to the regular season that will determine the top six teams moving on to the Playoffs:
- All matches are a best-of-3 (BO3) series
- The Regular Season will be split into two halves:
- The first phase will be a Single Round Robin format
- The second phase will see teams divided into two groups based on their results from the first phase. Teams will compete in another Single Round Robin to determine their seedings in the PCS Playoffs
- This split, they are also trialling a new 1v1 Showdown where teams will participate to earn the right to pick their side for Game 1 of their
upcoming match
Here is the schedule for week one of the PCS 2024 Spring Split.
19 Jan, Friday (GMT+8)
17:00 CFO vs BYG
19:30 DCG vs WP
20 Jan, Saturday
17:00 FAK vs JT
19:30 PSG vs HPS
21 Jan, Sunday
17:00 WP vs BYG
19:30 CFO vs DCG
All matches will be broadcast in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese this season. The Playoffs will also include a Japanese-language broadcast. Fans can catch all the action on official PCS Twitch and Youtube channels.
