The 2016 NA LCS season was the fourth year of the North American ''League of Legends'' Championship Series. It was divided into spring and summer splits, each consisting of a regular season and playoff stage. Regular season games were played in the

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on ...

Studios in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

Format

Teams compete in a double round robin tournament over the course of nine weeks during the regular season, with matches being best-of-three. The top six teams from the regular season advanced to the playoff stage, with the top two teams receiving a bye to the semifinals. The seventh place team qualifies for the next split of the LCS but does not participate in playoffs. The bottom three teams play in a promotion/relegation tournament against the top two NA Challenger Series teams. Playoffs were single-elimination and matches were best-of-five. The winner of the summer split automatically qualified for the 2016 World Championship, while the team with the most cumulative championship points from the spring and summer splits also qualified for World Championship. A final team, the winner of the regional finals, also qualified for the World Championship.

Offseason changes

As the team with the worst record in the 2015 NA LCS Summer regular season,

Team Dragon Knights Team Dragon Knights, briefly known as Team Arena Online, was an American professional '' League of Legends'' team. For most of its history the team competed in the North American ''League of Legends'' Challenger Series, but was briefly in the N ...

was automatically relegated to the NA Challenger Series. As the eighth and ninth team places respectively,

Team 8 Team 8 was a professional '' League of Legends'' team that competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series. On October 7, 2015, Team 8's spot was acquired by Immortals, which began competing under the new name starting with ...

and

Enemy eSports Enemy or NME was an American esports organization with teams competing in '' League of Legends'', ''Call of Duty'', ''Smite'', and ''Super Smash Bros.'' They were originally branded as Enemy eSports. Enemy's ''League of Legends'' team competed in ...

were obligated to play in a promotion tournament against the second and third place Challenger teams, who were Team Coast and Team Imagine respectively. Enemy was relegated after losing to Coast 3–0, but Team 8 beat Imagine 3–1 to remain in the LCS. The two teams that won the Promotion matches both sold their spots to other teams before the start of the spring split. The LA Renegades were automatically promoted by winning the NA Challenger Series. A total of three teams, Team Coast, Team 8, and

Gravity Gaming Gravity Gaming (also known as Team Gravity) was a North American ''League of Legends'' team that competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). The team was originally known as Curse Academy and was the second team of ...

sold their NA LCS spots, all to new esports organizations that had been created for the sole purpose of being in the LCS. Team Coast sold their spot to

NRG eSports NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in ''Apex Legends'', ''Clash Royale'', '' Dragon Ball FighterZ'', ''Fortnite'', '' Gears of War'', ''Hearthstone'', '' Overwatch'', ''Rocket League ...

, Team 8 sold their spot to Immortals, and Gravity's spot was sold to

Echo Fox Echo Fox was an American esports organization. It was founded on December 18, 2015, by retired basketball player Rick Fox, who created Echo Fox after he purchased the NA LCS spot of Gravity Gaming. The organization had expanded into various ...

. Team Impulse had announced their intentions to sell their spot, but failed to do so prior to the original deadline deadline. However, after the Spring Split, Team Impulse managed to sel it's spot to

Phoenix1 Sentinels is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. The organization was founded as ''League of Legends'' team Phoenix1 and competed in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). In June 2018, ...

just before the start of the Summer Split.

Spring

Teams and rosters

Regular season

† NRG Esports won the tiebreaker over Team SoloMid due to head-to-head matchup in the regular season.

Playoffs

The 2016 NA LCS Spring finals saw a rematch of the previous split's finals between

Team SoloMid Team SoloMid (TSM) is a professional esports organization based in the United States. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy "Reginald" Dinh. TSM currently fields players in ''League of Legends'', ''Dota 2'', ''Apex Legends'', ''Valorant'', ...

and

Counter Logic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) is an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a ''League of Legends'' team, and has si ...

. The finals were played in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

at the

Mandalay Bay Events Center The Michelob Ultra Arena, formerly the Mandalay Bay Events Center, is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose indoor arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts In ...

Bracket

Summer

Teams and rosters

Regular season

† Team Envy won the tiebreaker over Apex Gaming due to head-to-head matchup in the regular season.

Playoffs

The summer finals were held at the

Air Canada Centre Scotiabank Arena (French: ''Aréna Scotiabank)'', formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purposed arena located on Bay Street in the South Core district of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto R ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, the first time an NA LCS match had been played outside of the United States.

Bracket

Regional finals

References

{{League of Legends Championship Series League of Legends Championship Series seasons North American League of Legends Championship North American League of Legends Championship North American League of Legends Championship 2016 in Toronto