League of Legends Champion Series Season 4 kicks off this week

Season four of the League of Legends Champion Series kicked off earlier this week with the European Spring Splits in Cologne, Germany, while matches in North America are slated to start today, developer Riot Games announced.

Matches for the North American LCS Spring Split, held in Manhattan Beach, Calif. and starting at 3 p.m. ET, will be livestreamed through the League of Legends eSports site. The site will stream all LCS matches throughout the season and currently lists the spring schedule for all Champion Series matches as well as the option to buy tickets to attend LCS events.

According to Riot Games, last year's League of Legends Champion Series brought in more than 32 million unique viewers, with more than 8 million concurrent viewers tuned into the final Championships.

The latest patch for League of Legends, which went live earlier this week, made a number of tweaks to the title. Alongside the patch, Riot Games player relations and communications manager Chris Tom said the company is working to set up a "stable roster of free champions" for new players to use. This roster will be available at a later date.