Riot Games announces League of Legends Champions Queue for EMEA
Riot Games has announced that the League of Legends Champions Queue will be coming to Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Riot made this decision following the success of the North American League of Legends Champions Queue in February 2022. It is scheduled to begin on January 24, along with the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) Winter Split.
The CQ is a separate game mode of League of Legends. Here, professional and up-and-coming players can play more challenging games that match their true skill levels. They can practice among the best players, improve their skills and show off their qualities in a highly competitive environment.
The system provides automatic lobby creation, voice communication channels and match reporting in a private Discord server, which will schedule, track and organize games between players. While only eligible players will receive invitations, fans can access the leaderboard.
The CQ will have a council responsible for managing the private Discord server. They get to decide which players are eligible to join and are also in charge of disciplinary actions. They can revoke players’ access to the server for disciplinary reasons and define qualifications for future events.
Due to the CQ being restricted only to the best players, there are several requirements that they need to meet before participating. Players must be part of an active roster in an LEC team, and they are required to be in a Grandmaster rank or higher in the solo queue.
Additionally, any player from European Regional League (ERL) teams who is part of the starting lineup is also eligible to join the CQ. The regions included in the ERL are the LFL, Prime League, Superliga, TCL and Ultraliga.
League of Legends CQ schedule
The CQ will consist of five total splits, each lasting for a month.
The first split will be on January 24 until February 23, followed by the second split from February 28 to March 31. The third split is scheduled for May 30 to June 30, with the fourth split set to take place from July 4 to August 11. Those who play in the first split will compete for a $40,000 prize pool.
Riot also includes the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) split as part of the CQ event. However, the date has not been revealed. Matches will play on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 10:00 pm and 2:00 am CET. This also applies in the North American CQ.
There is no information if these matches can or will be co-streamed, but reports have said that content creators have asked Riot for streaming rights
Format changes
Earlier this month, Riot announced significant changes in League of Legends MSI and World Championship at the end of the season. Some of these changes include the introduction of double elimination at MSI and a Swiss Stage format at the 2023 World Championship.
The 2023 World Championship will be held in South Korea for the first time in five years, with a total of 22 teams participating in the event. One of the new things the event will see is a new stage called the Worlds Qualifying Series (WQS).
Players from the LEC and League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) will compete in a best-of-five match. The winning team will proceed to the Swiss Stage, where teams will play and attempt to win three matches to secure their qualification at Worlds.
Meanwhile, the 2023 MSI will take place in London. There will be 13 teams participating in the tournament. Although both the Swiss format and MSI will implement double-elimination, reports said the 2023 World Championship would use the single-elimination format to determine the winner.
