The League of Legends European Championship Considers Format Changes for 2023 Season
The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) is exploring potential format changes for the upcoming 2023 season. These changes aim to enhance the competitive experience for teams and fans by reducing the number of best-of-one games played in each split.
The format adjustments, if implemented, will take effect in January 2023 at the start of the competitive LEC calendar. The proposed changes involve a reduction in one-shot games.
An article by French publication L’Équipe revealed that the potential format shift, which is still pending approval, was presented to a panel of LEC team owners earlier this week.
In addition to reducing best-of-ones, other modifications were discussed during the meeting. However, not all of these changes have been made public as of now.
Whether the reduction in best-of-ones will mean fewer games overall or a shift towards more best-of-threes or best-of-fives remains uncertain.
Maximilian Peter Schmidt, the head of LEC esports in EMEA at Riot Games, shared insights with L’Équipe on September 15th. He expressed a strong desire to provide the best product for fans and teams, indicating that some form of format change is in the pipeline.
Despite these discussions, none of the proposed changes have received official endorsement yet.
The current format structure of the LEC involves teams playing 18 matches over two months during the spring split, followed by a six-team playoff format. The winner gets to represent the region at the Mid-Season Invitational. A similar structure is followed during the Summer Split, with 18 regular season games (all best-of-ones) and another six-team finals bracket.
In the past, Riot Games Europe has experimented with different formats, such as best-of-threes and best-of-twos, during the LEC (formerly known as EU LCS) regular season. However, these formats did not persist beyond several test splits.
The LEC has been playing best-of-one matches since 2018, and it adopted the 18-match regular season format when the league franchised in the following year.
Correction Sept. 15 5:47am CT: This article originally misattributed comments in an interview with L’Équipe. The error has now been rectified, and we apologize for any confusion caused.