European Challenger Series Qualifiers guide: Teams, rosters, schedule, stream

Been craving some LoL Esports action? Good news — the European Challenger Series Qualifers are this week. 12 teams, including domestic champions from France, Spain, Germany and the UK as well as Fnatic Academy, will square off in a tournament for the final two spots in the EU Challenger Series 2017 Spring Split.

You probably have a lot of questions. We will try and provide those answers for you.

Ok, what is the European Challenger Series Qualifiers?

In North America and Europe, the top-flight League of Legends league is called the League Championship Series (or LCS, for short). The second-tier League in both regions is called the Challenger Series — teams that get demoted from the LCS fall there and teams that get demoted to the LCS come from there.

Each year, the Challenger Series goes through the qualifier process for deciding the final two teams of its six-team league. This tournament pits 12 teams against each other for those two final spots in a frenzied six days of action.

Who is participating?

There are three ways to qualify for the EUCSQ.

• Bottom two teams from EUCS Summer 2016: Team Forge (EUCS #5) and Nerv (EUCS #6).
• Champions from European national leagues: Team-LDLC (France), ASUS Rog Army (Spain), Bobaski (Poland), Team Larssen (UK/Ireland), Alternate Attax (Germany) and Tricked eSports (Nordic).
• Online open qualifier: Euronics Gaming (EUW #1), Alientech Esports (EUW #2), Fnatic Academy (EUW #3) and Team Kinguin (EUNE #1).

What’s the format?

Riot Games

The teams have been split into two groups of six. Each team will play all the others in its group once, and the top two teams from each group will advance to the finals. The finals will be best-of-five series, with the winner of each advancing to the EU CS Spring Split.

All games will be played on Patch 6.24, with Camille enabled. This tournament will still be played under the old six-ban rules rather than the new 10-ban ones, but don’t expect Camille to make it through the ban phase too often.

Here are the groups.

Group A:

Fnatic Academy, Euronics Gaming, Team-LDLC, ASUS Rog Army, Bobaski

Group B:

Alientech Esports, Team Larssen, Alternate Attax, Team Kinguin, Team Forge, Tricked Esports

Are there any names we should know?

Yes! Among those familiar to LCS fans:

• Euronics: Former Fnatic support Lews “NoXiAK” Simon Felix
• Fnatic Academy: Former G2/Fnatic top laner Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek, former ROCCAT/Elements/FC Schalke 04 AD Carry Rasmus "MrRalleZ" Skinneholm and former Fnatic support Johan "Klaj" Olsson.
• Nerv: Former SK Gaming top laner Hyeong-min “Ruin” Kim, former Team ROCCAT jungler Jonas "Memento" Elmarghichi and former Copenhagen Wolves support Christophe "je suis kaas" van Oudheusden
• Team-LDLC: Former Elements mid laner Jérémy "Eika" Valdenaire
• Team Kinguin: Former ROCCAT AD Carry Paweł "Woolite" Pruski
• Tricked eSports: Former Copenhagen Wolves/Ninjas in Pyjamas top laner Dan "Godbro" Van Vo, former Vitality AD Carry Victor "Reje" Etlar Eriksen

What’s the schedule?

All times EST.

Tuesday, January 10

Fnatic Academy vs. Euronics Gaming -- 11 AM

Team Alientech vs. Team Larssen — 12 PM

Bobaski vs. Nerv — 1 PM

Team Forge vs. Tricked eSports -- 2 PM

Team-LDLC vs. ASUS Rog Army — 3 PM

Alternate Attax vs. Team Kinguin — 4 PM

Wednesday, January 11

Fnatic Academy vs. Team-LDLC — 11 AM

Team Alientech vs. Alternate Attax — 12 PM

ASUS Rog Army vs. Nerv — 1 PM

Team Kinguin vs. Tricked eSports — 2 PM

Euronics Gaming vs. Bobaski — 3 PM

Team Larssen vs. Team Forge -- 4 PM

Thursday, January 12

Nerv vs. Euronics Gaming — 11 AM

Tricked eSports vs. Team Larssen — 12 PM

Fnatic Academy vs. ASUS Rog Army -- 1 PM

Team Alientech vs. Team Kinguin — 2 PM

Team-LDLC vs. Bobaski — 3 PM

Alternate Attax vs. Team Forge — 4 PM

Friday, January 13

Team-LDLC vs. Nerv — 11 AM

Alternate Attax vs. Tricked eSports -- 12 PM

Bobaski vs. Fnatic Academy -- 1 PM

Team Forge vs. Team Alientech -- 2 PM

Euronics Gaming vs. ASUS Rog Army -- 3 PM

Team Larssen vs. Team Kinguin — 4 PM

Saturday, January 14

ASUS Rog Army vs. Bobaski — 11 AM

Team Kinguin vs. Team Forge -- 12 PM

Euronics Gaming vs. Team-LDLC -- 1 PM

Team Larssen vs. Alternate Attax -- 2 PM

Nerv vs. Fnatic Academy — 3 PM

Tricked eSports vs. Team Alientech — 4 PM

Sunday, January 15 — FINALS, BEST-OF-5

Game 1: Winner of Group A vs. runner-up of Group B, 8 AM

Game 2: Winner of Group B vs. runner-up of Group A, AFTER GAME 1

How can I watch?

All games will be streamed live on the LoLEsports website, with broadcasts offered in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Polish.