For the next season, the LCS returns to its traditional weekend schedule, albeit with fewer teams. However, despite the many issues the North American league has to deal with, it will still offer plenty of LoL betting opportunities.

ALSO: LEC Winter 2024 betting preview

LCS 2024 format changes

Organizers have yet to reveal any significant format changes for the 2024 season; however, the league will play out differently than it did in 2023. After one year of playing midweek games, the LCS returns to its old Friday–Sunday schedule having noticed a significant drop in viewership.

In the 2022 season, the league’s viewership peaked at over 387,000 for the LCS Spring split. Last year, neither split broke 300,000 viewers, with the LCS 2023 Summer split drawing fewer than 224,000. It marked the lowest peak viewership over the last six seasons.

This mainly had to do with the changed schedule and times. Last year, all regular-season games were scheduled from Thursday to Saturday between 14:00 and 18:00 PST, making it difficult for local fans to follow the action.

Another significant change for the 2024 LCS season is the league’s downsizing from 10 teams to eight following the exodus of the Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses. The league has decided not to seek replacement teams, which might bring some format changes.

LCS 2024 Spring teams

For the first time since 2014, the LoL Championship Series will feature just eight teams. Besides the Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses leaving the league, TSM
— the LCS’s most successful team — decided to shut down their LoL division in September and sold their spot to Shopify Rebellion.

• 100 Thieves
• Cloud9
• Dignitas
• FlyQuest
• Immortals
• NRG
• Shopify Rebellion
• Team Liquid

LCS 2024 Spring outright odds

There has been some significant roster-shuffling within the LCS ahead of the next season. Even so, the top League of Legends betting sites aren’t forecasting too many changes at the top end of the standings.

Despite their shock loss against NRG Esports in the LCS 2023 Championship final, Cloud9 enter the next season as the +125 favourites to reclaim their throne. C9 have established themselves as the most dominant team in the LCS over the last year and now enter the 2024 season with an even scarier lineup.

Priced at +350, NRG Esports are tipped as the second-favourites to claim the LCS 2023 Spring title. Team Liquid (+500) and the new-look FlyQuest (+600) are the only others teams priced in single digits.

100 Thieves (+1200) and Dignitas (+2000) are the most likely challengers among the outside chances. That leaves Immortals and the newcomers, Shopify Rebellion, as the two complete underdogs at +3000 apiece.

• Cloud9 – +125
• NRG – +350
• Team Liquid – +500
• FlyQuest – +600
• 100 Thieves – +1200
• Dignitas – +2000
• Immortals – +3000
• Shopify Rebellion – +3000

LCS Spring 2024 odds courtesy of BetOnline

LCS 2023 Spring predictions

Seeing Cloud9 priced as the favourites ahead of LCS 2024 Spring is hardly surprising. Robert “Blaber” Huang and his crew were by far the best-performing LCS team of 2023, winning the LCS Spring Playoffs and both regular seasons with a combined record of 27-9.

For the 2024 season, Cloud9 have made two further roster improvements. They have replaced the problematic mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo with former Evil Geniuses star Joseph Joon “jojopyun” Pyun and re-signed North America’s best support player, Philippe “VULCAN” Laflamme.

NRG, while weaker on paper, could be tricky for Cloud9. NRG weren’t expected to do much last season, yet they won the LCS Championship. And like Cloud9, NRG have made some improvements to their lineup, adding support Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun to strengthen an already potent bottom side.

Based on last season’s results, Cloud9 and NRG are the teams to watch, but Team Liquid and FlyQuest shouldn’t be ignored either.

Team Liquid had an unfortunate season and struggled to reach their ceiling. Now, with a new top side in Jepon “Impact” Eon-young and Eom “UmTi” Seong-hyeong, TL look far more dangerous, but perhaps they have fallen into the same trap as other LCS teams that have spent big on Korean imports only to fall apart.

This was the case with FlyQuest. They appear to have learned from their mistakes, however, putting together a Western lineup with experienced talent in Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen and Gabri?l “Bwipo” Rau and surrounding them with young talent.

All four of those teams have very high expectations, but there are a few more question marks above Liquid and FlyQuest and their projects.

100 Thieves, Dignitas, Immortals and Shopify Rebellion all have enough talent to be competitive in LCS 2024 Spring, but they can’t compare to the top four squads. 100 Thieves, in particular, will have a lot to prove after forming a roster of young and unproven talent.

With League of Legends Season 14 introducing significant changes to in-game items, map layout and overall gameplay dynamic, there’s no telling how the LCS 2024 Spring will play out. But the outright betting markets give a good idea of which teams should do well.

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FlyQuest went 1-1 last week, with a loss against Team Liquid and a win against Immortals. The loss against Liquid was a bit surprising, but TL were the better team, gaining a significant advantage through the bottom lane.

A similar thing happened in FlyQuest’s defeat against Evil Geniuses a week prior, when Lee “Prince” Chae-hwan failed to deliver. We expect to see some improvement, but it’s fair to say that FlyQuest are no longer the undisputed top dogs of the LCS.

Cloud9 are on the upswing with five consecutive wins to their names, thanks to the new mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo. He has had a few outstanding individual performances and also seems to have brought this team together.

Talent-wise, FlyQuest and Cloud9 look evenly matched, but the recent showings tip the scale in Cloud9’s favour. So at even odds or better, Cloud9 are an easy choice.

?Team Liquid showed up in their win against FlyQuest, only to get crushed by Cloud9 a day later. Losing against Cloud9 isn’t too concerning because C9 might be the best team in the LCS, so the main thing to take away from last week is that Team Liquid have improved. Yet, we don’t know if they’re ready to compete for the LCS crown.

We might not get the answer on Wednesday, when Liquid play Dignitas, who are 2-13, already locked out of the LCS 2023 Spring playoffs and possibly the weakest team in the league.

You can’t expect much from Dignitas since they don’t have the talent to match most other LCS teams. On the other side, Team Liquid need this win, and with the players they have, Liquid should aim for a blowout victory, which should be easily achievable.

?TSM and 100 Thieves are tied at 7-8, which sits them right at the LCS 2023 Spring playoffs cutoff line. But despite winning the same number of games, esports betting sites have 100 Thieves priced as -188.68 favourites with BetOnline.

This might again be the case of 100 Thieves being overrated due to big names on the roster since it’s hard to find a good reason to have them ranked higher than TSM. They won against Golden Guardians last week, but the eye test would prove that 100T weren’t that efficient. They got ahead early thanks to Can “Closer” ?elik, then nearly lost it all with some questionable plays.

100 Thieves are a bit overhyped ahead of this match, so even though we don’t have many great things to say about TSM, they’re still a very efficient mid-late game team, which is where 100T tend to struggle.

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?Team Liquid have the talent needed to compete for top spots in the league, but their games are messy. Synergy is not there, and while there’s still hope that Liquid can turn things around, we aren’t too confident that it will happen anytime soon.

Cloud9 enter this match on a three-game winning streak and are 6-1 since Week 4, with wins against Dignitas, Immortals, Team Liquid, TSM, 100 Thieves, and again Dignitas. Their only loss came against Golden Guardians, but we aren’t too concerned about that due to C9’s strong showings on Friday and Saturday.

Mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo continues to improve, top laner Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami is a legitimate MVP contender, and overall, Cloud9 look really good. We don’t expect any surprises on Friday – take Cloud9 to secure a comfortable win.

?Counter Logic Gaming are 7-6 and should have an easy road to the playoffs, but with TSM, 100 Thieves, and Team Liquid all breathing behind their necks, CLG have to keep their momentum going.

A win on Friday would be massive for CLG, but expecting them to beat Evil Geniuses might be too optimistic. Evil Geniuses failed to amaze in Week 5 when they lost against Dignitas and Golden Guardians, but they bounced back last week with wins against TSM and FlyQuest.

Mid laner Joseph Joon “jojopyun” Pyun can be a bit inconsistent sometimes, but when he’s on, Evil Geniuses look like a top-two team in the league. We got a glimpse of what EG are capable of last week, and regardless of their Week 5 slump and occasional blunders, this is a very good team.

Counter Logic Gaming have shown a lot this season, but they’re not quite at EG’s level. With the wind in their sails, Evil Geniuses should come out ahead.

Dignitas have yet to escape the 10th place in the LCS standings, and their defeat against Immortals last week pushed them down even further. Things are just not clicking for Dignitas, who might have a relatively easy schedule ahead, but we don’t expect to see much improvement from them.

It’s tough to figure out what’s happening with Dignitas, but the same can be said for 100 Thieves. As stated by Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, 100T need to improve their early game, which is true, but a small part of their problems.

100 Thieves should reach the playoffs, but with how volatile this team has been, it’s tough to predict how their games will go. Although 100T are undeniably more talented than Dignitas, their games can quickly get out of hand, suggesting that we might be in for a messy affair that can drag out.

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?100 Thieves showed a glimpse of a possible rebirth at the end of Week 5 when they beat Team Liquid. But then they lost against Cloud9 and Counter Logic Gaming, once again proving that they’re not ready to compete for the LCS crown.

Golden Guardians are the complete opposite. After a shaky start to the split, Golden Guardians found momentum and are 8-5, with just one loss over the last four weeks. They did lose against Team Liquid at the start of Week 6, but that was more of a fluke than anything else.

Esports betting sites have 100 Thieves priced at +110, which doesn’t sound right. Their ceiling looks high, but 100 Thieves have shown nothing over the last few weeks, in contrast to Golden Guardians, who are legitimate title contenders. At -151.52, GG to win is a no-brainer pick.

?Immortals are 3-10 after six weeks of action, two wins above Dignitas (1-12) and two wins short of catching up to Team Liquid and 100 Thieves at 5-8. As their record would suggest, this split hasn’t been too kind to Immortals, who have a mountain to climb if they wish to reach the playoffs.

TSM, who many considered just as weak as Immortals, have been doing well for themselves, securing six wins from 13 games. They’re still struggling in the early game, but besides that, TSM look like a mid-table team that can be competitive.

TSM will not compete for the LCS title, but they’re fundamentally better than Immortals, who’ll be lucky to win another game by the end of the split.

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FlyQuest kept their wheels spinning, having beaten 100 Thieves and Dignitas in LCS 2023 Spring Week 5, which earned them a two-game lead ahead of Cloud9 in the regular season standings. Across both games, FlyQuest looked dominant and were particularly impressive against 100 Thieves, where they amassed a substantial gold lead despite trailing in drakes and kills.

Stats like that show how good a team really is, so as we head into the sixth week of the regular season, there’s nothing new to be said. FlyQuest continues to look like the strongest team in North America.

Counter Logic Gaming had a bit of a resurgence over the last two weeks, winning four of five series, which includes victories against Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, TSM, and Immortals. The only team that CLG couldn’t beat was FlyQuest just under two weeks ago.

Looking back at the series, Counter Logic Gaming played well and were neck to neck with FlyQuest for most of the game, but poor drake control and a misplay at the 29-minute mark left them unable to match FlyQuest in the late game.

We don’t expect CLG to cause an upset on Thursday, but they have shown enough over the last two weeks for us to believe that they can force another close game.

Besides their victories against Team Liquid, Counter Logic Gaming, and the upset win against FlyQuest, TSM hasn’t shown much this season. And that mostly comes down to their shaky early-game, which hasn’t improved much lately.

With a -1399 gold differential at 15 minutes, TSM’s early games are one of the worst in the league; however, they find a way to make some of that back in the mid-late game. This team has potential for improvement, but perhaps that’ll come once the meta shifts.

Evil Geniuses are fresh off a 0-2 week, with defeats against Dignitas and Golden Guardians, and the main reason EG came out short in those fixtures was their poor start to the games. Against both teams, EG were approximately 2k gold and two drakes behind at 16 minutes despite picking powerful early-game compositions.

TSM and EG have shown a similar level of play over the last couple of weeks, so even though EG field better players, there’s a decent chance TSM will come out on top. At the offered LoL betting odds, TSM are a solid longshot bet.

100 Thieves broke their five-game losing streak on Friday when they beat Team Liquid and improved their regular season record to 5-6. It wasn’t the cleanest performance from 100 Thieves, and it’s hard to praise them too much for beating the struggling Liquid, but that win could get them back on track.

Cloud9 were close to catching up to FlyQuest, but then lost against the surging Golden Guardians last Thursday, which set them back quite a bit. We saw C9 bounce back from that loss thanks to Jang “EMENES” Min-soo’s heroic performance against TSM, but there’s a lot more C9 have to show before we can talk about a possible title run.

On paper, Cloud9 look stronger than 100 Thieves, mainly because 100T have been struggling lately. However, this is still a strong roster, and with a long-overdue win under their belts, we might see a better display from 100 Thieves this week.

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The North American squad had a fantastic start to the split, ending week four atop the standings. FlyQuest have recorded eight wins and one loss with 24 points, putting them ahead of teams like Evil Geniuses and Cloud9, both of which have earned seven wins with two losses and 21 points each.

Although FlyQuest are doing great, fans have anticipated news of a roster change because the team was forced to make some early-season substitutions. Eyla was meant to be their starting support this year; however, the Australian resident was unable to join FlyQuest due to visa issues.

READ: Best League of Legends betting sites in 2023

As a result, the team brought in Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon, who has played as starting support for several weeks. Besides Eyla, former KT Rolster upstart Lee “VicLa” Dae-Kwang, who was named the LCK Rookie of the Year, is one of FlyQuest’s most recent additions.

In an announcement video posted to the organization’s Twitter page, FlyQuest president Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith and general manager Nick Phan confirmed that Eyla had finally resolved his visa issues and was in Los Angeles.

FlyQuest’s commendable performance thus far had left many curious as to whether the organization would bring in Eyla for week five of the LCS 2023 Spring. His replacement, Winsome, has proved to be a great team player for the duration of the split.

PapaSmithy and Phan stated that while the decision was hard, Eyla’s visa issues could not be held against him and he will take his place in the lineup. Winsome, meanwhile, will return to the Challengers team.

With FlyQuest’s roster now complete, they are all set for the LCS 2023 Spring’s second round-robin phase.

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?Despite a solid start to the season, 100 Thieves crumbled during the super week and lost against Evil Geniuses, Counter Logic Gaming, and Golden Guardians, worsening their season record to 4-5. 100 Thieves still have plenty of time to bounce back, but we don’t see it happening on Thursday.

This week, 100 Thieves will meet with FlyQuest, who suffered a shock defeat against TSM last week but have otherwise been unstoppable. With an 8-1 record, FlyQuest are one win ahead of Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses in the LCS 2023 Spring title race and are currently playing like the top title contenders.

100 Thieves and FlyQuest are very close across most performance metrics. They’re efficient in taking drakes (2.89 per game) and have a similar gold differential at 15 minutes (692 – 737). Still, FlyQuest are more efficient in the mid-late game with a high gold differential per minute (266), Herald control (61.7%), and Baron control (83.3%).

With how poorly 100 Thieves performed last week, it’s tough to find a good reason to back them for this match. Talent-wise, they’re good enough to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the league, but until we see some improvement, we have to trust FlyQuest to get it done.

Like 100 Thieves, Team Liquid lost all three of their LCS 2023 Spring Week 4 fixtures – against Counter Logic Gaming, Evil Geniuses, and Cloud9, pushing them to eighth place in the league table. Yet even with a three-game losing streak, Team Liquid are priced as massive favourites for this match with all esports betting sites.

That isn’t too surprising, considering Immortals enter this match with four straight losses against Golden Guardians, FlyQuest, TSM, and Evil Geniuses. Immortals also already lost against Team Liquid during Week 2 of LCS 2023 Spring in a pretty one-sided affair.

Team Liquid have a lot of work to do before we can consider them LCS title contenders, but they’re still a class above Immortals. We expect a repeat of the teams’ first meeting – a fast game with under 24 total kills.

Golden Guardians had an amazing run last week, beating TSM, Dignitas, and 100 Thieves, showing a completely different side of this team compared to what we saw from GG across the first two weeks of the split. The most apparent things from Golden Guardians – which we already saw glimpses of earlier this season – are their strong team fighting and consistency.

Support Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun, jungler Kim “River” Dong-woo, and mid laner Kim “Gori” Tae-woo have all been showing solid individual performances for most of the split, but the most important player for Golden Guardians throughout the super week was ADC Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes.

Despite Golden Guardians’ strong performances, they’re expected to struggle against Cloud9, which isn’t too surprising considering Cloud9 are one of the top LCS teams. However, the reigning champions will play this game with a new mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo, who has been outstanding in the academy team, but we don’t know how he’ll do in the big league.

At +175 with BetOnline, a smaller position on Golden Guardians to win isn’t a wrong choice. They’re one of the league’s most consistent teams, and the way they’ve been playing lately, GG have a realistic chance to upset Cloud9.

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Team Liquid’s journey into the 2023 season has been up and down, but we’ve yet to see them produce anything remarkable three weeks into the split. With wins against Immortals, Dignitas, and Golden Guardians, Team Liquid have managed to beat only the current bottom three teams in the league, yet they were far less impressive against FlyQuest, TSM, and 100 Thieves.

Their next opponents, Evil Geniuses have looked better this season, but they have their weaknesses – not necessarily with the talent, but rather with drafts.

EG have yet to figure out the current meta, which has put them in rough spots throughout the split and backfired when faced with stronger opponents. This also puts a question mark above the offered LoL betting odds knowing that Liquid are good enough to exploit the draft gaps and put themselves in a winning position.

Team Liquid’s performance figures are also very impressive. With the league’s highest Herald control (75%), tower difference at 15 minutes (0.8), gold difference at 15 minutes (2437), and average tower plates per game (7.67), Liquid are doing something right. They’ve yet to figure things out, but this is a quality team worth taking at plus money.

Counter Logic Gaming had an explosive start to the season, beating Dignitas and Evil Geniuses in the first week of the split, but have since dropped games against Cloud9, Immortals, Golden Guardians, and TSM. With four straight losses, CLG are back where many expected them to be before the split started, and looking at their schedule, things likely won’t change.

With Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, and FlyQuest as their Week 4 opponents, there’s not a single game where you can confidently say that CLG can win — especially if they don’t improve their early game (-691 GD@15).

CLG do well in the mid-late game, but so do 100 Thieves, who are on top of that, the third-best early-game team in the league (+1964 GD@15). Comparing the two teams talent-wise, 100T again come out on top with a stable bottom lane and solid top side – two things CLG are lacking.

We don’t expect to see any surprises on Thursday. Take 100 Thieves to win with at least eight kills to spare.

TSM have shown some flashes of greatness this split, but their true test comes on Thursday when they clash with the undefeated FlyQuest. But as the latest LoL betting odds suggest, this should be a very lopsided match.

While we don’t like overhyping a team that shows good form early into the season, FlyQuest are perhaps one of the best teams the LCS has seen in years. They have the highest drake and Baron control (74.2%, 91.7%) and first tower rate (100%). In other metrics, FlyQuest don’t shine, but they are efficient in closing out games and field some of the top players in the league.

TSM’s poor early game is our biggest concern for this match, as it’s highly unlikely for FlyQuest to give up the early lead they’re bound to get. If FlyQuest were a bit less consistent, this would be an underdog play, but this looks like a one-sided affair that should end quickly.

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100 Thieves are doing much better than expected, largely thanks to Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, who is performing exceptionally well for someone who hasn’t competed professionally for two years. And just like how Doublelift is better sooner than expected, so is top laner Milan “Tenacity” Oleksij, who didn’t need long to prove his talent.

Holding the same 4-2 record, Evil Geniuses looked good in their win against Cloud9 on Saturday, and their loss against FlyQuest a day prior was painful but avoidable. Evil Geniuses are a good team with issues, mainly in the draft, which is fixable. But until they find a way to draft better, EG will likely start their games at a disadvantage.

Assuming Evil Geniuses draft well here, they should be able to defeat 100 Thieves, so this game comes down to how EG will do rather than what 100 Thieves can show. Either way, this should be a close affair that can drag out for well over 30 minutes.

TSM have shown some flashes of greatness this season, and they might be one of the best teamfighting units in the league. But before we can start talking about TSM as one of the top teams, they’ll need to improve their early game.

With a -1940 gold differential at 15 minutes, TSM’s early game is abysmal, and their tower differential at 15 (-0.3) isn’t that much better either. Their next opponents, Golden Guardians, aren’t that efficient in the early game either (-711 GD@15, 0.0 TD@15), but they have shown improvement.

Kim “River” Dong-woo’s pathing has improved, and Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun started roaming much sooner in Golden Guardians’ recent games, which puts a lot of pressure on the opponents. We would also argue that the way GG play shows that they’re much better than what their record (2-4) would suggest.

Esports betting sites have priced TSM as slight favourites, but the eye test will prove that the odds should be reversed. TSM can be deadly in mid-late game, but they often reach that stage with a massive disadvantage.

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?FlyQuest are the only undefeated team in the LCS (4-0), and based on what they’ve shown over the last two weeks, FlyQuest might be the strongest squad in the North American LoL league. It is impressive that they didn’t need long to gel, and with wins against Cloud9 and Team Liquid, there seems to be just one more team that can potentially challenge FlyQuest – Evil Geniuses.

In 2022, Evil Geniuses emerged as one of the top LCS teams, and they continue to carry this tag into the 2023 season. They had a rough start to the year, going 1-1 in Week 1, with a defeat against the surging CLG, but Evil Geniuses have since looked much better, picking up wins against TSM and Dignitas.

As the latest LoL betting odds suggest, this is FlyQuest’s game to lose, and their latest showings make it hard to argue with it. Still, the moneyline odds are a bit too low, and the kill line (5.5) seems too high for us to pick FlyQuest’s side of this market. EG can come out ahead, but at the very least, they should force a close game.

?100 Thieves continue to get hyped up by the LCS community, and even though they’re 3-1, there’s more to that record than meets the eye. The combined record of the teams 100 Thieves have beaten so far — Immortals, Dignitas, and TSM — is 3-9, so it’s not like we can praise 100 Thieves too much for their 75% win rate.

Team Liquid are 2-2, which doesn’t look too good, yet they looked better last week when they bounced back from a 0-2 start and defeated Immortals and Golden Guardians. Much like 100 Thieves, Team Liquid, have only beaten lesser teams, so they enter this bout with a point to prove.

This is a challenging game to predict, as neither team gave us much to feel excited about. But we know that both squads like to fight (+14 kills per game), and with not much to separate them, this could be a drawn-out and bloody affair.

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