TCL is Reportedly Losing Worlds Spot and Might Joing the ERL Ecosystem
| Tags: League of Legends
| Author Rohat Dicle Kılınç
Turkey’s major professional LOL circuit, The Turkish Championship League, will reportedly lose their Worlds spot going forward.
Ever since its first season back in 2014, TCL has been one of the Wildcard regions in the Worlds ecosystem and now it currently is one of the eleven independent leagues Riot operates. With the rising popularity of the league, they even opened the Riot Games Esports Arena, dubbed the biggest esports arena in the world at the time, in Istanbul, with over a thousand live audience capacity. However, due to the global pandemic, and the declining economy in Turkey, it was rumored that TCL was going through a rough time. The league closed the aforementioned arena just two years after it was opened, starting the 2022 Winter Split.
The future of TCL has been a big talking point during their recent split, with many speculating this could be the last year of it. And today, a new report came out by a reputable Turkish news site, Esporin. According to their tweet, TCL will not only lose their Worlds spot going forward, but they might also lose their independent league status and get incorporated into the ERL ecosystem in Europe.
Kaynaklarımızdan gelen bilgilere göre, 2023 sezonundan itibaren Türkiye'nin Worlds slotu olmayacak.
Aldığımız duyumlar, Türkiye'nin 2023 itibarıyla bağımsız lig statüsünü kaybedip bölgesel bir lige dönüşerek ERL'in (Avrupa Bölgesel Ligleri) bir parçası olabileceği yönünde. pic.twitter.com/UjdHhefqk3
— Esporin (@esporincom) October 21, 2022
“According to information from our sources, Turkey will not have a Worlds slot beginning from the 2023 season. We have heard that Turkey may lose its independent league status by 2023 and turn into a regional league and become a part of ERLs (European Regional Leagues).”
The shutdown of TCL is not the only reported change in Riot’s League of Legends circuits for 2023. Upcomer’s Brieuc “LEC Wooloo” Seeger, who also corroborated TCL losing the Worlds spot, but not joining ERLs, also said this would only be “one of the several changes the whole lol ecosystem will see next year.”
One of these changes is LCS moving their broadcast days to weekdays, Thursday/Friday instead of Saturday/Sunday. There are also some reports of multiple other leagues—LJL, PCS and LCO—merging to create a combined competition. There hasn’t been any official word from Riot on any of these rumors so far, but considering that Worlds 2022 is currently continuing, any announcement would be expected to take place after the tournament.