If you want to see Asia’s very own big leagues in League of Legends duke it out to be the SEA equivalent of SKT or Royal Never Give Up, you’ll want to stick around for this. The folks at Riot Games, Garena, and FunPlus Esports will be hosting the League of Legends Southeast Asia Tournament (LST) 2019 to determine the best of the best in the MOBA circuit.

The countries involved will be Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Vietnam isn’t there because it has its own official Riot Games-sanctioned league. They’re ahead of the curve here.

The tournament will have a Spring and Summer tournament, with each of them featuring four stages: Online Ranked, National Qualifiers, National Minors, and SEA Tour Major. Let’s break it down:

Online Ranked

• It’s open registration for all Southeast Asian teams.
• Each team gains as much MMR point from 2nd March to 8th of March. That’s happening right now, FYI. Register at lolseatour.com
• The top teams from each nation will move on to National Qualifiers

National Qualifiers

• This tournament will have 16 teams; they’re either invited or the top teams from the ranked qualifiers.
• These will be best-of-one matches.
• The top 4 teams from each nation will advance.

National Minors

• This fight will feature the top 4 teams from each nation.
• The teams are seeded based on previous stage performances.
• This will be on a single elimination bracket with best of 3 matches per fight.
• The winning team will advance to SEA Tour Major

SEA Tour Major

• The last fight will feature the top team from The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore/Malaysia, as well as other qualifying top teams from the region.
• This will be on a single elimination bracket with a best of 3 format for the semis. The Grand Finals will have a best of 5 set.
• The winner of the tournament will be the SEA Tour Spring champion and earn a slot at the Mid Season Invitational Play Ins; that’s quite a big deal in the LoL esports circuit since they’ll be fighting teams from South Korea and China.

So the Spring portion is sorted, but what about the Summer bit? Well, the organizers said that the seeding from Spring will affect the Summer seedings. So if you did well in Spring but didn’t win, you’ll be placed fairly in the Summer brackets.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about casters, Riot Games and company will be placing priority on community casters within the region. The tournaments will have a secondary stream with recognized amateur casters doing their shoutcasting work. Looks like things are looking up for LoL esports in the Southeast Asian region.