Stay tuned, folks! Today marks the first day of the League of Legends spring play-offs, the first of its kind. As an eSports fanatic, I am fairly excited to see something like this go down outside of a major network like MLG and such. Oh how I love thee, Riot Games.

All through-out the weekend of April 26^th through the 29^th, the top 6 seeded LCS pro teams are going to duke it out for a total prize pool of $100,000 within their region. Match format will be best two out of three instead of the usual singles. In North America, 1^st place TSM Snapdragon and 2^nd seed Curse each have an automatic first-round buy and will later face the winners of their region’s quarter-final round. Right now, we’re looking at 3^rd seed Dignitas facing off against 6^th seed Good Game University for their chance to face Curse. On the other end, 4^th seed Counter Logic Gaming will go up against 5^th seed Vulcan for their shot at trying to knock-out the explosive Team Solo Mid.

There’s a lot more on the line than just money here. Avoiding the minimum placement of fourth can mean more than just a game loss, it could mean the end of some of these pro team’s careers. If you don’t place, you’ll be put up in the same brackets as the 7^th and 8^th seed and will have to fight other teams for a shot at returning to the LCS at the Summer Promotion Tournament at a later date. The top 4 teams of this play-off however, are automatically given spots at the summer split.

Of course, the current predictions stand at the classic four pro teams retaining LCS spots:

1. TSM Snapdragon
2. Curse Gaming
3. Dignitas
4. Counter Logic Gaming

But based on previous records, I fear the worst for all-star pro team, CLG, who went 2-2 against Vulcan during the regular season as well as under-performed during other matches in most cases. Of course, Dignitas is still not safe but they did go 3-1 against GGU in their favor. I don’t entirely know what will happen to the fanbase of NA LCS should one of these teams be eliminated from play, but I can safely say I wouldn’t be surprised if an upset was just around the corner.

Of course, losing here doesn’t mean the end of the world for these teams. They still get another shot later on, but it’s better to feel secure knowing your position is guaranteed.

Let us know if you plan to tune it. Perhaps you have predictions? Or heck, even if you closed your eyes and put your finger on the monitor to decide on which team you’re rooting on, still let us know that!

Personally, I think TSM has gained a lot of momentum since dropping long-time ADC, Chaox, but nothing is guaranteed. Curse still has the young gun, Voyboy, while CLG has the highly-mechanical, Doublelift. We’ll have to see if Dignitas can maintain momentum even after a rather bad super week, having dropped 4 of their 5 games, and hopefully, the last minute roster changes of Vulcan and GGU was a risk well-played. As for who I think will win, I don't care because whoever does win deserves it then.

Stayed tuned for coverage as well as analysis! You can catch all the action on twitch.tv later today:

European Playoff games will begin at 15:00 CEST (6:00am PDT) this Friday and 13:00 CEST (4:00am PDT) this Saturday. Sunday kicks off again at 13:00 CEST (4:00am PDT) with the third/fourth place matchup, followed by the best-of-five championship match.

For North America, the competition begins on Friday with the quarterfinals at 3:00pm PDT (24:00 CEST) and on Saturday at 1:00pm PDT (22:00 CEST). On Sunday, the third/fourth place game begins at 1:00pm PDT (22:00 CEST) with the best-of-five grand finale at 4:00pm PDT (1:00 CEST).

So tune in this Friday as the best teams of the NA and EU battle in the first ever LCS Playoffs, and let us know who you think will rise to the top on our Twitter @LoLeSports.