A brief guide to LTA South Split 2

Following the end of First Stand, South American fans will finally see their favourite teams in action once again as the League of the Americas’ (LTA) South conference resumes action with Split 2.

Ahead of LTA South Split 2, here is everything you need to know about the competition and what fans can expect from the teams fighting for the split title.

Ultimately, LTA South Split 2 will determine the representatives at League of Legends’ upcoming Mid-Season Invitational and the Esports World Cup.

The split will have the same format as the North conference, with eight teams competing across three different stages before heading into the playoffs.

The first three weeks of the split, called the Positioning Phase, will feature a single round robin with best-of-one (BO1) matches. Based on the score record, teams will be split into two groups of four using a snake system.

From week four to week six, there will be a single round robin of best-of-three (BO3) series within each group before advancing to the cross-group battles.

In week seven, the top two of each group will play each other for seeding, while the bottom two will have an elimination series.

The top six teams will qualify for the playoffs, featuring a double-elimination bracket. The fifth and sixth seeds will be placed in the lower bracket, while the other four will enter the upper bracket. The playoffs winner will become the LTA South representative at the two upcoming international tournaments, MSI and EWC, as well as win R$115,000 (~£15,580).

All matches will implement the ‘Fearless Draft‘ mode, meaning that champions can only be picked once by either team during the series. Initially only implemented in the first part of the season, Fearless Draft was extended by Riot Games after the positive feedback received from the community.

You can catch all the LTA action on its official Twitch and YouTube channels with a Brazilian broadcast. Due to overlapping schedules with the LTA North, there will be no official English broadcast.

The group stage will kick off on April 5th and end on May 18th, with matches taking place every Saturday and Sunday.

Playoffs will take place between May 24th and June 15th, less than two weeks before the start of MSI.

Despite having consolidated the former CBLOL and LLA (Latin America) leagues, the LTA South conference wasn’t able to match its Northern counterpart in the Split 1 playoffs, with all four LTA South teams finishing in the bottom four.

LTA South Split 1 champions Isurus Estral were the only ones who could go head to head with Team Liquid, dropping 2-1 in the opening round. The roster is expected to be one of the favorites thanks to the presence of import players like Noh ‘Burdol’ Tae-yoon and Jeong ‘Mireu’ Jo-bin, both of them raised in the LCK Challengers League. The roster also features former LCS player Brandon Joel ‘Josedeodo‘ Villegas.

Runner-up Leviatan are expected to be in the mix following a strong Split 1 performance that has room for improvement. In particular, its mid laner Cristian Sebastián ‘cody’ Quispe Yampara has impressed as the team’s main carry.

LOUD will be an unknown variable as the team parted ways with Korean jungler Na ‘Wiz’ Yoo-joon and support Kim ‘Winsome’ Dong-keon. Their replacements are yet to be announced.

As a result, paiN Gaming (PNG) might be the underrated team of Split 2. Brazilian mid laner Matheus ‘dyNquedo‘ Rossini Miranda has announced his retirement and will be replaced by Korean player Jo ‘Roamer‘ Woo-jin, who previously played for HLE and TL Challengers. The new addition’s performance will likely dictate the overall performance for PNG.