Riot Games has announced changes to the LEC and the European League of Legends ecosystem, including merging regions, more best-of-three series, another split of competition, and changes to the European Regional Leagues.
The biggest change that fans will notice is the structural change to the LEC format by Riot Games. The league will now compete across three splits, winter, spring, and summer. The winner and spring split will take place before the Mid-Season Invitational.
The format of the splits will also change. Each split will start with single best-of-one round-robin play with the top eight teams moving on to a best-of-three double-elimination group stage. The top teams from that stage will move on to a double-elimination best-of-five playoff stage to decide a winner of the split.
The overall season will culminate in the LEC Season Final which will have the best six teams from the whole season, teams that won a split will qualify automatically, competing to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship.
Players will also now be classified as EMEA instead of European, Middle Eastern, or African by Riot and thus be able to move more freely between European leagues. Turkey, CIS, and MENA regions will also come under the EMEA umbrella.
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Riot Games makes big changes to LEC and ERLs
Changes are also coming to the second tier of European play. The Türkiye Championship League will join the EMEA Regional League circuit and EU Masters will be rebranded as EMEA Masters.
EMEA will now have five accredited ERLs in Superliga, La Ligue Francaise, Prime League, Ultraliga, and the TCL.
“Over the last decade, our EMEA region has been in a constant state of evolution, from the transformation of the EU LCS to the LEC, and the establishment of the most robust developmental ecosystem across the sport to today, as we expand the footprint of the region,” Naz Aletaha, Global Head of League of Legends Esports said in a press release.
