In an effort to better streamline the Premier path to pro and the global Challengers circuit, Riot has announced changes to Challengers APAC for the tail end of 2024. This announcement comes alongside new information for the 2025 Challengers and Ascension formats.
In order to fill out the remainder of the 2024 calendar, Riot will add a third Challengers stage to the end of the year. Additionally, Challengers APAC will be reduced from nine to five total regions, as the six Southeast Asian leagues will be condensed down to a single Challengers SEA region.
The third Challengers stage of the year will integrate Premier teams into the competition, featuring Challengers Split 2 teams as well as 2-12 teams from their respective Premier region. More details on each tournament will be confirmed at a later date by local organizers.
The updated calendar for Challengers Pacific
The Challengers SEA consolidation is a part of Riot's plans for Premier and Challengers to have a direct connection, meaning only the top Premier Asia teams will qualify to Challengers SEA. Outside of the streamlined path to pro, Riot mentions the change being beneficial for its partners and the level of play in the long-term, and the new Challengers league will better reflect the broader Pacific ecosystem in terms of regional integration and competition.
The current regions that will be combined into Challengers SEA are Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan/Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The new Challengers SEA region will begin competition in Stage 3. The top two active teams from the previous regions will be invited directly, while remaining teams will participate in the Premier Invite division of Premier Asia. The top four teams from Premier will join Challengers SEA, rounding out the participants at sixteen teams.
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