Riot Games Plans to Expand LEC by Including EMEA, Overhauls Esports Ecosystem

Riot Games has decided to expand the scope of the LEC (League of Legends European Championship) esport ecosystem starting next year. The developer revealed that the LEC would now include countries from Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, giving more players a platform to show their talent. Some of the main changes include an additional Winter Split, a new LEC Season Finals event and a name change for the LEC to now stand for the League of Legends EMEA Championship. 

2023 EMEA esports ecosystem revised format

The competitive year will be divided into three six-week splits, namely Winter, Spring, and Summer and it shall end with an LEC Season Finals. Each Split will include one ten-team Best of 1 round-robin, followed by an eight-team Best of 3 double-elimination group stage. The final segment of the split will have a  four-team, double-elimination, Best of 5 playoffs. The champions for each respective Split will earn a spot in LEC Season Finals. The remaining slots for the Finals will be decided by seeding based on Championship Points. Here the teams will battle it out for four weeks in a series of Best of 5s to determine the ultimate LEC Champion.

The ERL (European Regional Leagues) will now include a total of 13 regional leagues with the addition of the Arabian League (AL) and Turkish Championship League (TCL). The TCL is now an accredited ERL under the new LEC. The LCL (CIS + RUS) is suspended until further notice, but Riot may include them in this ecosystem structure in the future. The CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region is now a part of the EMEA ecosystem even in the LCL’s absence. 

The LEC is also going through a name change. While the acronym remains the same, it will now stand for the League of Legends EMEA Championship. The Amazon EU Masters is also being rebranded to the Amazon EMEA Masters. 

The changes in the format mean that LEC fans get to watch a lot more of their favourite players and upcoming talent and the region gets a chance to make its presence known in more than 50 matches.