-
Rebranding the Portuguese ERL
This season will be the 7th for the Portuguese League of League of Legends (LPLOL), the official European Regional League (ERL) for Portugal. For this particular season, we prepared a new image for the League and we've decided to shorten the competition in two months, remove "extra cups" from its competitive circuit, but keep the "Grand Final" and the league total prize pool in the 50.000€, the same of its previous edition.
Year after year, the LPLOL has been enjoying steady growth in all its aspects, namely in players, audience and prize pool. Its role in the European scenario is well established as an exporting league. True, it is, and it will hardly be as important as major ERL's such as Germany, France, Spain or UK, but its connection through exported players keeps flourishing. For this year, we decided to "lighten" the competitive calendar, to provide teams and players more time to explore outside opportunities, while keeping the prize pool, to increase the reward during regular Splits. The "Grand Final" now scheduled for the end of September, will act as a final competitive moment and mark the closure of the season, while allowing us to still coronate the best team of the season, besides the best team of the regular Splits.
So, after this, how will the LPLOL work this year? Quite simply, with three competitive moments: Spring Split, Summer Split and Grand Final. The Spring and Summer Split, also known as the Regular Splits, will occupy approximately 3 months of competitive matches, from January to March, and June to August. Lastly, the Grand Final will take place at the end of September, providing the last two weeks of matches. This will give the community, teams and players about 9 months of the competitive season, with plenty of opportunities to develop and prove themselves. Keep in mind that after the Regular Splits, there will always be the highly expected European Master participation for the two best teams of each Split, extending their competitive calendar to a possible extra month.
As for the design change, we believed it was time that LPLOL got its own identity. For the past 5 seasons, LPLOL image has been designed around its partners, instead of itself. But the LPLOL has grown into something more than a competition. It grew League of Legends as a sport, providing a career path to players and staff, developing local heroes, entertaining the fans and providing brands with a new place to present themselves to the community. And so, it was time to have its own image and brand. Of course, we're very thankful for the support our partners have given us over these years and also in this important step. Just for curiosity, some of them have been supporting the League for now 5 seasons!
As for the broadcast, we have some new surprises and developments in store! Due to the COVID-19 situation, the studio will be off-limits, at least for the Spring Split, but that won't stop us from adding new additions to the 100% remote broadcast and to bring the players and the fans closer together. Stay tuned!
We're really looking forward to the new season of the WGR LPLOL and what surprises it will bring!
The WGR LPLOL will start on the 25th of January and you can watch it live at https://twitch.tv/InygonTV1! For more information, check out the WGR LPLOL website at https://lplol.pt!
