It recently came to light that the professional eSports league known as the League Championship Series (LCS) in Canada and the United States, which is run by Riot Games, would be reducing the number of franchise teams in the league from ten to eight. However, most people still don’t know why they did this.
Since then, two eSports teams from the LCS, Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians, both exited the league on November 19, 2023, as their third-party administrator agreement with the organizers, Riot Games, was terminated, but by mutual decision from all parties.
Let’s dive straight in to discover more about one of the world’s most iconic professional esports leagues, where pros battle it out by playing the hugely successful League of Legends (LoL) video game.
How have people reacted to Riot Games’ recent decision to reduce the league from ten to eight franchise teams?
The recent last-minute decision by Riot Games to reduce the number of top-level franchise teams in the League Championship Series (LCS) to eight teams has been slammed by the League Championship Players Association (LCSPA).
The decision was made just before the start of the new 2024 season, which means there will only be eight teams competing in the 2024 League of Legends eSports season.
It may pave the way for two more eSports franchises to join the league the following season, but it is still unclear whether it will remain an eight-team league in the future or just for the upcoming season.
According to further reports, support staff for the Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians had to be released, meaning many of these individuals will be unemployed because of Riot Games’ decision.
The organizers have been criticized for not involving the LCSPA in such an important decision. We will just have to wait and see what happens at the end of this season about the possible addition of two more franchises to replace Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians.
It’s still unclear why Riot Games has reduced the number of teams in the league.
Is it possible to bet on esports events in South Africa?
Yes. It’s now possible to bet on today’s biggest esports events at a growing number of iGaming sites.
However, instead of typing phrases such as sports betting South Africa into your preferred search engine to find sports betting sites, which could bring up a list of unlicensed sites that simply cannot be trusted, you may like to try the official 10Bet SA website.
10Bet is an online sports betting casino (meaning it has sports betting services and hundreds of casino games on the same website) that is legally permitted to operate in the South African market. For example, to legally operate in the country, an iGaming site must have obtained the necessary online gambling license from the Mpumalanga Economic Regulator (MER).
10Bet is also licensed by the world’s leading online gambling licensing authority, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. In other words, it’s only one of a handful of perfectly secure, legitimate, reliable, and trustworthy real money gambling sites out there worth signing up to.
To place sports bets at 10Bet, you must first register a free account, and to do so, the legal minimum age required to sign up to sites like 10Bet in South Africa is 18. 10Bet Sports is just one of several gambling products you will have access to when you sign up to.
They have pre-match betting services at 10Bet Sports and live/in-play betting services, where you can bet on a sporting event during the event at 10Bet Live Betting.
If you want a change from sports betting, you may be interested in playing over 780 computer-generated online casino games with high RTP% rates at 10Bet Games or playing the latest and most advanced live dealer games from Evolution Gaming and Ezugi at 10Bet Live.
What kind of eSports events are popular to bet on at 10Bet Sports?
It depends on the time of the year because some events only occur at certain times and for a short period. If you want to bet on an eSports event, some of the most popular events to keep an eye out for are the following:
- League of Legends World Championship
- Fortnite World Cup
- The International
- FIFAe World Cup
- Mid-Season Invitational
- League of Legends Pro League
- Evolution Championship Series
- Overwatch League
- BLAST Premier League
Other top leagues/events you may like to bet on include the Wild Rift League, the Honor of Kings International, the PUBG Global Championship, and the Intel Extreme Masters, to name a few.
Popular games often played at one or more of these events, if you hadn’t already guessed, are FIFA 23, League of Legends, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2, Valorant, Rocket League, Starcraft, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, Minecraft, PUBG, and World of Warcraft.
