The LEC, now the League of Legends EMEA Championship, will undergo an exciting format change as the pinnacle of competitive League of Legends in EMEA.
Competition will take place across three splits: Winter, Spring, and Summer, and will culminate in the Season Finals. Winter Split and Spring Split will both fall prior to MSI, while Summer Split and the LEC Season Finals will take place between MSI and the World Championship.
The Spring finals won’t just be a fight for EMEA dominance – it’ll also decide the LEC’s MSI representative.
We want to make our season more action-packed. We are introducing shorter splits, where best-of series will test players to the limits of their competitive ability. This change offers players even more opportunities to compete and hone their skills on the biggest stage in the region, and gives fans even more reasons and opportunities to tune in for the best competition EMEA has to offer.
Each split will consist of a single BO1 round robin taking place over three weeks. After those three weeks, the top eight teams will be separated into two groups, where they’ll compete in a BO3 double-elimination group stage, before concluding with a four-team, double-elimination BO5 playoff stage. Of those four, only one can be crowned Champion , and secure themselves a spot in the all-important LEC Season Finals.
The crown jewel of the LEC calendar will be the LEC Season Finals, a culmination of the competitive year in EMEA featuring the best six teams the region has to offer. The champions of LEC Winter, Spring, and Summer will automatically secure themselves a spot in the LEC Season Finals , with the remaining places and overall seeding decided by Championship Points. Those six teams will then battle it out to prove their regional dominance, and for a chance to represent EMEA on the international stage at the League of Legends World Championship.
This format is being rolled out in EMEA as a pilot program as LoL Esports considers broader changes to the competitive calendar and season structure in 2024 and beyond. If the format finds success with fans, teams and pros, we could see a version of it deployed in more regions in the future. If it does not, we will continue to iterate to find the best format for our fans across the globe.