More imports are apparently coming to the LCS next season.
It appears that Riot Games and the LCS will be lifting some restrictions regarding player imports for the 2024 season. This is according to Cloud9's AD carry and the LCS Spring Split MVP, Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol, who said spoke about the rule change on a recent livestream.
According to Berserker, starting next season, the LCS will be increasing its player import rules. With the rule change, this will now allow North American teams to have up to three imported players on their roster with the former limit being at two. He also goes on to add, “Riot said next year can be three Koreans or three Chinese. I'm not sure about that, but I heard about it.”
Berserker himself is an imported player for Cloud9, who used up its only other slot for its midlaner, Jang "EMENES" Min-soo. Both of them played a crucial role in C9 securing its sixth LCS title as well as a slot in the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational.
The most recent change Riot made to the import rules was to allow Oceanic players to find residency in North America. This brought forth a wave of talent from the OCE region, particularly Evil Geniuses' Victor "FBI" Huang, Cloud9's Ibrahim "Fudge" Allami, and Team Liquid's Harry "Haeri" Kang.
With the import rule looking likely to change in the near future, we can possibly see more teams pick up underrated talents from the other top regions like the LPL and the LCK in particular. While two is the limit for now, it hasn't stopped seven of the 10 LCS teams from already utilising both import slots.
Of course, Riot has not made an official comment on the future of the LCS for next season. Stay tuned as we will keep you updated as we go along.
