2020 LCS Spring Playoffs: Schedule, format, prize pool, teams, how to watch

The 2020 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split playoffs are starting this weekend.

Six of North America’s best teams compete in this three-weekend long event following the regular season of the LCS.

Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming event.

Who is competing?

The 2020 Spring Split of the LCS was closer than ever before. Besides the first-place team, Cloud 9, who tied the all-time best record of the LCS at 17-1 game score. The remaining teams, at 2nd to 5th place, are only at most two wins apart from each other, a feat not seen before in the LCS.

• Read more: LEC and LCS announce return to screens this Friday with online matches

Because of this, going into the 2020 LCS Spring Split, expectations are all over the place for the remaining teams.

 The Evil Geniuses, 100 Thieves, FlyQuest, Team Solomid and the Golden Guardians all still have a shot at winning the Spring Playoffs event, later this month. 

However, they have one huge challenge ahead of them to accomplish this, defeating the 17-1 Cloud9 roster. 

Schedule

The event schedule for the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs is different than one might expect. The event starts on the 4th of April, with the finals happening on Sunday the 19th of April.

The first match takes place on the 4th of April, which is the 4th place FlyQuest against 2nd place Evil Geniuses.

• Read more: 2020 LEC Spring Playoffs: Schedule, Format, Prize pool, Teams, How-To Watch

The second series is on Sunday the 5th of April, featuring the 3rd place 100 Thieves taking on the 17-1 Cloud9 team. Cloud9’s only loss of this entire season was against Team Solomid on the 7th of March. 

Where it gets complicated are the losers bracket matches. Due to schedule conflicts with other regions, the Loser Bracket matches of the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 7th and 8th of April.

All games of the Playoffs event start at 9 PM GMT / 4 PM EST / 1 PM CST. 

The format of the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs

(Credit: Liquipedia)

The format the LCS Spring Playoffs uses this year is the standard double-elimination format. The 5th and 6th place teams, the Golden Guardians and Team Solomid start in the lower-bracket stages.

All series of the Playoffs event use the best-of-five format. 

Prize Pool

The 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs have a different prize structure than its European counterpart.

Unlike in the LEC, the LCS no longer makes use of Championship Points to pick its representatives for the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. The LCS gives away three of its World Champion seeds during the 2020 LCS Summer Playoffs later this year, granting entree to the event for the top three teams of the region. 

The $200,000 playoffs prize pool for the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs is as follows: 

• 1st: $100,000, Mid-Season Invitational seed
• 2nd: $50,000
• 3rd: $30,000
• 4th: $20,000
• 5th/6th: $0

2020 LCS Spring Playoffs: How-To Watch

Riot Games has official streams for the 2020 LCS Spring Playoffs in English on both Youtube and Twitch.

However, there are dozens of unofficial twitch broadcasts in other languages permitted to stream during the event. You can find the unofficial broadcasts on the League of Legends page of Twitch.tv. 

• Twitch (English)
• Youtube (English)

For additional in-game rewards, be sure to watch through the Watch page of Lolesports.