LTA Format Changes Announced Following Fan Discontent

LTA Commission Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman has announced LTA format changes for the rest of 2025, and even on into 2026, following the conclusion of First Stand. LTA North particularly the , has been at the center of a lot of viewer dissatisfaction during its inaugural split. The wider fan base seemed noticeably displeased by the new format and league changes.

Now, Riot Games and LTA Commissioner Mark Zimmerman have responded to these complaints in a video released on the company’s social media titled “LTA Format Changes”. Here’s what’s changing, and why it matters.

MarkZ announces big LTA changes

In the video released to socials, MarkZ sits down in front of a camera and whiteboard and breaks down LTA Split 1, the learnings the LTA team has taken from it, and what they plan to change going forwards.

The LTA format changes for 2025 are as follows: 

• For Split 2, three weeks of best-of-1 play will pave the way for a best-of-3s second component of Split 2
• In the best-of-three portion, the top 4 LTA North teams will face off for playoffs seeding. At the same time, the bottom 4 LTA North teams will play elimination matches for remaining playoff seeds.

Split 3 will be the same format as Split 2, with two notable exceptions:

• Firstly, the “Pick And Play” system will be in effect. This means every week, teams will select their opponents for next week manually, leading to more fun matchups and banter, hopefully. 
• Secondly, the second phase of Split 3 will be best-of-five matches, rather than the best-of-three from earlier in the year. 

Non-format related LTA changes, fantasy esports return

The LTA Commissioner also announced multiple other, non-format-related changes that are upcoming. 

First, there will be a bootcamp between Split 2 and Split 3 where LTA Sul teams will be flown out to Los Angeles on Riot Games’ dime to help them improve. During the announcement, MarkZ acknowledged that the gap between LTA North and Sul continues to be large, but that addressing that gap to make it a truly competitive region has always been the league’s intention. This boot camp has been planned for a while, says MarkZ, but announcing it early reaffirms the region’s commitment to closing the delta between North and Sul.

MarkZ also announced several fan-forward initiatives, such as the revival of an official LTA fantasy sports league option coming to fans. Fantasy leagues were available many seasons ago, but it’s been a long time since Riot had a fully official option. 

Finally, the Commissioner rounded out the announcement video by conforming that Split 1, which has been widely-maligned by fans and community members as too short, will be longer in 2025. 

Following the enormous success of Los Ratones, and similar content-backed organizations, streaming their scrims, the LTA will allow its teams to stream scrims with Tier 2 teams. There will be exceptions, where teams who have a Tier 2 roster of their own cannot stream scrims that conflict with their Tier 2 team’s scheduled play.

The LTA format changes are fantastic

So, how do these changes, and the video land? Frankly, I think the LTA team knocked it out of the park with this video and the changes. There have been a lot of big changes, and fans have been vocal that not all of the first iteration decisions were landing well. But, having heard out the proposed changes, it looks like Riot is on the right track to solving a lot of these issues. Firstly, the format changes. 

Split 1’s key complaint to fans, and to me as well, was that it hosted too few games for LTA North teams who didn’t qualify for the inter-conference event. Put simply, teams like the newly MoistCritikal and Ludwig-supported Shopify Rebellion barely played any games at all before being completely off the broadcast schedule for almost two months. Next year, those teams will hopefully have more chances to play over a longer split so the whole league gets more time in the spotlight. 

The Split 2 and 3 announcements are also big wins – more games, more inter-conference boot camping to close the North-Sul gap, and the Pick and Play system continues to be a more fun, dynamic way to do week-by-week seeding. Bo3s and Bo5s are going to push Fearless to its full potential, as much as I have my reservations about jumping full-bore into Fearless for the rest of the year, and the fan-oriented changes are good tweaks.

Overall, I think these changes are frankly great. They address key complaints, and give LTA, and the newly-adopted Fearless for the full year, the games and series it needs to grow the NA audience. So, in short, if you’re an LTA fan, there are a lot of reasons to be absolutely psyched about the future that’s upcoming for the region.