The Liga Latinoamérica (LLA; lit.'Latin America League') was the top level of professional League of Legends in Latin America (refers to Hispanic America). The esportsleague was run by Riot Games Latin America.[2] Each annual competitive season was divided into opening and closing seasons, which concluded with a playoff tournament between the top four teams.
Plans for the league were first announced in May 2018 by Riot Games, which stated that it would merge Latin America's two regional leagues, the Liga Latinoamérica Norte (LLN, North Latin America League) and Copa Latinoamérica Sur (CLS, South Latin America Cup), into a single competition.[3][4]
The LLA ceased operations after the 2024 season, as three teams from the league will join a merged pan-American league known as the League of Legends Championship of The Americas, with a team from Northern Latin America joining the North Conference (made up of teams formerly from the LCS) and two teams from southern Latin America joining the South Conference (made up of teams formerly from CBLOL).[5][6]
Format
Each opening and closing season consisted of a group stage and a playoff stage. In the group stage, teams competed for points in a double round robin spread over two phases. The top four teams from the group stage would advance to the playoff stage, which used a "King of the Hill" single elimination bracket.[7] During the 2019 season, there were no phases in the group stage, and six teams participated in a standard single elimination bracket in the playoff stage.[8]
At the end of each split, the teams in the LLA were given performance points, with the bottom two teams in performance points after the Closing split playing in promotion and relegation series against the winners of the two regional leagues in Latin America, the Liga Regional Norte for teams in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia and Ecuador, and the Liga Regional Sur for teams from Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, for a chance to play in the next season's LLA. The 2023 and 2024 promotion tournaments were cancelled with no performance points awarded for the Closing split, following the expelling from one of the teams due to mismanagement and the league's merger respectively.