The League of Legends Master Series (LMS) was a professional League of Legends league with teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau from 2015 to 2019. Eight teams competed over two seasons to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship. In September 2019, Riot announced that the LMS would merge with the League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) to create a new professional league for all Garena-affiliated regions except Vietnam, the Pacific Championship Series (PCS).
History An announcement was made by Garena in October 2014 about plans of creating a new league to separate Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau from the rest of the Garena Premier League (GPL) of Southeast Asia. The league would have two seasons per year, spring and summer. The regional quota of two slots in the GPL and a single seed in the World Championship every year temporarily offset the dominance of the Taiwanese teams, but these conditions were not enough as the slots of the Southeast Asia in the World Championship 2014 were both filled by Taiwanese teams. As part of the changes to the 2015 GPL, the region consisting of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau left the GPL and began to compete instead in the LMS, which replaced the Nova League in Taiwan. This action was done to allow Southeast Asian teams a better chance at winning the GPL, as Taiwanese teams had won every GPL season.
In April 2019, Garena removed Dragon Gate Team from the league following a match-fixing investigation. The team's owner was banned from affiliation with any Riot-sanctioned team, and its jungler, coach and manager were suspended.
In September 2019, it was announced that the LMS would be merged with the League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) to create a new professional league for all Garena-affiliated regions (excluded Vietnam), the Pacific Championship Series (PCS).
Logistics Each LMS team was supported by Garena with NT$200,000, which did not include prize money. Teams from Hong Kong and Macau were provided with flights and accommodations, and received an additional NT$60,000. The beginning of the LMS coincided with the construction of the Garena e-Sports Stadium, located on the first floor of an office building in Neihu, Taipei.
Format
Group stage Offline tournament Double round robin, matches are best-of-three Top four teams receives a spot in playoffs Bottom team will play in the promotion tournament for a spot in the next season
Playoffs Offline tournament Single elimination tournament, seeding is based on regular season ranks All matches are best-of-five Total prize pool is NT$5,800,000 (≈$182,740 USD)
Past seasons Year Split 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Qualified for Worlds Seed 1 Seed 2 Seed 32015 Spring ahq eSports Club Flash Wolves Taipei Assassins Hong Kong Esports ahq eSports Club Flash Wolves N/ASummer ahq eSports Club Hong Kong Esports Flash Wolves Midnight Sun Esports2016 Spring Flash Wolves ahq eSports Club Machi 17 Taipei Assassins Flash Wolves ahq eSports Club N/A Summer Flash Wolves J Team ahq eSports Club Hong Kong Esports2017 Spring Flash Wolves ahq eSports Club J Team Machi 17 Flash Wolves ahq eSports Club Hong Kong Attitude Summer Flash Wolves ahq eSports Club Raise Gaming J Team2018 Spring Flash Wolves G-Rex MAD Team Machi 17 Flash Wolves MAD Team G-Rex Summer Flash Wolves MAD Team J Team Hong Kong Attitude 2019 Spring Flash Wolves MAD Team ahq eSports Club J Team J Team ahq eSports Club Hong Kong Attitude Summer J Team ahq eSports Club Hong Kong Attitude MAD Team
References