The third season of the Pacific Championship Series begins on Feb. 11 and features 10 teams from across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan & Macau battling it out over two splits for their chance to represent their region at the 2022 World Championship.
The only cross-regional league in League of Legends esports, teams will once again be competing from their home nations on a modified tournament realm server, allowing the teams to compete with as little interference as possible.
With the opening match of the season just under two weeks away, the PCS is again, for the third year in a row, displaying a large turnover rate in organizations and players competing. Outside of a very financially stable four teams, Beyond Gaming, Impunity, J-Team and PSG Talon, the league will be welcoming six brand new teams to the competition in 2022.
These teams are:
● CTBC Flying Oyster from Taiwan
● Deep Cross Gaming from Taiwan
● Frank Esports from Hong Kong
● Hurricane Gaming from Taiwan
● Meta Falcon Team from Taiwan
● SEM9 from Malaysia
Unfortunately, this lineup is much less diverse than in previous seasons. In 2022, just two teams will be representing the Pacific region outside of Taiwan, making the league look less like a showcase of Pacific region talent and more like the LMS of old.
The regular season of the PCS will be played out in best-of-one double round-robin matches. Moving into “best-of-x double-elimination matches” in playoffs. All matches will be broadcasted in English, Mandarin, Thai, and Cantonese.
Familiar teams PSG Talon and Beyond Gaming will both be fielding drastically different rosters than they did in 2021, where both teams were able to prove themselves on the world stage. PSG has imported some Korean players from the amateur leagues and BYG is looking to do what they do best by scouting their own regions and giving young players an opportunity to step up, à la Doggo from last season.
No matter which team it is that ends up taking the PCS title, the region still has a lot to prove to the world in 2022.
