Riot Games announced the officially partnered teams and the format for the 2025 season of League of Legends esports in North and South America under the newly formed League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA). As previously announced by Riot, LTA combines League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), Liga Latinoamérica (LLA), and Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) under one banner, dividing the league into North and South Conferences (LTA North and LTA South).
Americas League North Conference will include North American LCS teams and Latin America North—teams from Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) that are closer to the United States. The North Conference will have a total of eight teams, with six existing teams from LCS; one team from LLA (northern LATAM), and one guest spot for a tier-2 guest team. Matches will be played out of the Riot Studios in Los Angeles.
First, and most important to fans are which organizations will remain in the League of Legends ecosystem as tier-one partnered teams:
LTA North Partner Teams
- Cloud9
- Dignitas
- FlyQuest
- Shopify Rebellion
- Team Liquid Honda
- Lyon Gaming – a new organization that combines Six Karma and Movistar R7 from the LLA as the official LATAM Partner team.
Stepping away from LoL esports are Immortals Progressive and NRG Kia (as first reported by my colleague Kevin Hitt as far as I know).
Serving as a provisional guest team is 100 Thieves, who decided to “sell its franchise slot back to Riot Games due to business reasons,” according to today’s announcement. Riot said that it has made the decision to buy back the slot and work on a transition plan. 100 Thieves will compete with full access to LTA and international tournaments, but will not be eligible for the Promotion Tournament at the end of 2025, according to the announcement, which would indicate that it does not want to hold onto this slot or fight for it in any way. 100 Thieves issued an statement on Twitter/X on Thursday.
Also serving as a provisional guest team in LTA North is Disguised, the LoL esports roster backed by popular streamer Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang. By the end of Season 2025, Disguised will defend its slot in LTA North for Season 2026 against tier-two NACL and LRN teams in the Promotion Tournament.
LTA South Partner Teams
- Fluxo
- FURIA
- LOUD
- paiN Gaming
- RED Canids
- Vivo Keyd Stars
- Leviatán – the team enters the South Conference as the LATAM Partner team.
Serving as a Guest Team is Isurus – By the end of Season 2025, Isurus will defend their slot in the LTA South for Season 2026 against the representatives of CBLOL Academy and LRS in the Promotion Tournament.
Out of the mix as partnered teams are KaBuM! Esports, INTZ, Los Grandes, and Liberty (we do not know if these teams will remain in tier-2, as of this writing).
Format for LTA in 2025
In addition to having new branding, and what Riot believes is a more unified structure across North and South America, the LTA will have a new format in 2025. Each conference will compete across three unique splits throughout the year, with live audiences in attendance.
Split 1: This split will start with each conference competing in a double-elimination, best-of-three tournament in Fearless Mode (similar to what Riot is doing in other regions like LEC and LCK), where teams face off within their own conference. By the end of this stage, the top four teams from LTA North will head to Brazil to compete against the top four from LTA South for a single-elimination tournament with the top eight teams, continuing the best-of-three format. The finals will be a best-of-five, with the winner earning a spot at a new international event.
Split 2: This split will see teams play a double round-robin, best-of-one format against the other teams in their conference. After this regular season, the top six teams from each conference will compete in a double-elimination playoff bracket, with the winner being crowned the conference champion and earning a spot at the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).
Split 3: The third split will introduce a new format called the “Pick & Play” system. Using a Bo3 format after each week of competition, teams will select their opponents for the following week live on stage. The initial matchups will be determined by Split 2 rankings, and after each week, teams with the worst match and game records will have the chance to challenge teams with better records. Teams won’t be able to challenge an opponent they have already faced, and standings from Split 2 serve as tiebreakers.
After three weeks of Pick & Play, the elimination stage will begin, with the bottom four teams fighting to stay in the mix. By the end of week 6, only three teams from each conference will remain, and the top Southern teams will travel to the North for the 2025 Americas Regional Championship. Teams Will be competing for the final slot at Worlds and first-ever LTA Trophy (Americas Regional Championship).
Finally, Riot announced that it will allow more flexibility to teams when it comes to rosters; teams will still have a designated home region for residency rules, but will be allowed one player from anywhere in the Americas to be considered a local resident.
LTA competition officially kicks off on Jan. 25, 2025. For more information on the major changes coming to League of Legends esports in 2025, check out TEA’s previous reporting in the story, “Major Changes Planned for League of Legends Esports in 2025.”