League of Legends dev Riot Games details changes to league play for third season

Riot Games is tweaking League of Legends league play for the game's upcoming third season of competitive play, creating a new league structure that offers players a path to professional gaming, and the studio detailed the changes on the game's site today.

League of Legends' new league system applies to solo and duo games, as well as three-on-three or five-on-five team matches. The top-level structure consists of six tiers — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Challenger — each of which includes players of a similar skill level. Up to 250 players or teams of the same tier can be collected in a single league, which features a ladder structure for those 250 competitors. Leagues in the five lower tiers are broken up into five divisions, which show how far you've progressed toward a league in the next tier; your ladder ranking depends on your points and your division.

Winning a best-of-three Division Series will put you in the next division, while triumphing in a best-of-five Promotion Series will move you up to the next tier. Regional leaders will compete for placement in the Challenger tier, and the top-ranked five-on-five Challenger teams will have the opportunity to turn pro.

The top 16 teams in both the Europe Nordic and East region and the Europe West region will compete in a 32-team online tournament; the top eight teams will compete in a 16-team Promotion Tournament against the bottom four professional teams and four winners of partner events. The four best teams to emerge from the Promotion Tournament will join the top four professional teams for the Season 3 Championship Series.

Check out the full infographic below, and visit the League of Legends site for a full FAQ on the new structure.