NA LCS to hold NFL combine-style event

Riot Games announced today that Nov. 13-19 it will host the North American Scouting Grounds, an NFL combine-like event that will give 20 non-professional League of Legends players the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of competing at the highest level of the game. These players will have an opportunity to bootcamp with League Championship Series teams Team Liquid and Echo Fox, with more likely to be announced.

Players will be selected on Oct. 31. The four highest-ranked players from each role - top lane, jungle, mid lane, AD Carry, and support - on the North American ranked ladder will receive invites to the event.

In its announcement of the event, Riot Games says it hopes to give unnoticed players the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of starting spots on either the professional League Championship Series or the amature League Challenger Series teams. Players who have played more than two games in either league will be ineligible to compete in the scouting grounds. Additionally, there will not be an EU LCS Scouting Grounds at this time, with Riot stating "EU's partnership with the European Regional Leagues (ERL) means that there's an existing system that feeds directly into their Challenger Series Qualifiers, giving exposure to talented young players, and rising stars in local European leagues."

Similar to its requirements to compete in either series, Riot Games will run in-game behavioral checks on each player that it invites to ensure that none of them have histories with in-game toxicity, racist behavior, or anything that would flag said checks. Additionally, each player must be 16 years old by the time the 2017 Challenger Series begins, as well as be a North American resident as determined by Riot's interregional movement policy.