LEC 2023 : League of Legends European Championship

The LEC (League of Legends EMEA Championship) is one of LoL esports biggest competitive circuits. Popular with both fans of the game and betting fans, it draws a huge audience every year. It’s on par with other competitive circuits like the LCS, LCK and LPL, and makes up a significant part of the professional League of Legends scene.

European teams are considered contenders for the LoL Worlds trophy for four years straight. The pressure on teams to perform is higher than ever, making it one of the most exciting regions to watch and place esports bets on.

What is the LEC?

LEC is short of League of Legends European Championship. As the name indicates, it’s the name of the pro esports LoL league quartered in Europe. Run by Riot, ten teams compete in each annual season. The league is fully franchised, with the ten teams holding permanent slots each season.

LEC teams travel from all over the European continent in order to take part and duel it out for LEC crown and a trip to Mid-Season Invitational and the League of Legends World Championship. The league is traditionally sponsored by some pretty big brands like Kia, KitKat, Acer, Coca-Cola, and even American Express.

The LEC is traditionally hosted at the Berlin Riot Games studio.

LEC Teams

As of 2023, 10 teams are active in the League of Legends European Championship:

• Fnatic
• SK Gaming
• G2 Esports
• Team Vitality
• BDS Esports
  
• HRTS
• Excel Esports
• KOI Rogue
• MAD Lions
• Astralis

LEC Format

The League of Legends European Championship is made up off three yearly Splits (Winter, Spring, Summer). Earlie, Splits were divided into a Regular Season and a Playoffs stage. Traditionally, the regular season used to lasts for nine weeks, although adjustments have been made on occasion to accommodate unexpected events like the COVID-19 crisis.

Starting in 2023, the Regular Season features 10 teams competing in a single round-robin best-of-1 format. Followed by a Group Stage containing the top 8 teams playing in two seeded four-team groups. And finally Playoffs, featuring the best two teams in each of those Groups.

To better understand the extensive changes to the LEC format in 2023, see the video below:

All matches in the Playoffs are best-of-five, and the overall winner of the first split gets a direct invite to the Mid-Season Invitational, while seeding and points will determine the team representing the LEC at LoL Worlds. Additional slots for MSI and Worlds may potentially be awarded for the 4th placed teams.

Where to watch the LEC?

The best place to watch the LEC is the official League of Legends channels on either Twitch or YouTube. Twitch is the more popular option, and viewership numbers regularly exceed the 200k mark there, with finals peaking much higher.

LEC & EMEA League Broadcast Schedule

Riot Games’ LoL Esports division have confirmed an updated broadcast schedule for the upcoming year. Here’s everything you need to know!

“Extending our LEC broadcast over three days means we can offer up to 15 games a week – bringing even more excitement and hype matchups to each of you.” is what the LoL Esports division said in the official announcement. In addition, depending on what stage of the split is being played, we’ll be offering either five best-of-ones, two best-of-threes or a single best-of-five series each LEC day. It’s also worth highlighting that our biggest moments, our Split Finals and Season Final, will all be hosted on Sundays.”

“Being able to bring live gameplay from across the EMEA region seven days a week is something that we’ve been working towards for a while now and by doing so, we truly believe we’ll be helping continue the growth of the LEC and all of our ERLs, making them more exciting and engaging for our fans both within EMEA but also worldwide. These changes are part of a wider revamp to the LoL Esports global scheduling that our Global Esports team have been working on in order to deliver better content to fans across the world.”

LoL Esports Global Broadcast schedule

LEC Betting – How to bet on LEC matches

Betting on League of Legends is no different then betting on any other traditional sport or esports. Outright winners are easy to bet on, especially considering the LEC does not have a draw option and each match must end up with a winner. LEC betting as well as betting on LCS only requires your registration on an esports betting site, selecting your winner and placing the bet.

In order to maximize your returns however, it is important to know who the favorites are, which are the best LEC players and what are the best betting market to explore. Luckily, you are on the right page to explore all of these criteria.

LEC Betting Tips 2023

There are three main ways you can bet on LEC matches. They are Singles Bets, Accumulator/System Bets and Exotic Markets bets.

Each of these betting options has their own pros on cons.

• Single bets can be placed on the winner of the entire LEC split or individual matches. Your returns are only determined by the odds of that singular result you place your bet on, and are the easiest form of betting on the LEC.
• Accumulator and Systems bets mean tying up different match outcomes into a single betslip. If you are knowledgeable about the LEC and can predict the result of multiple matches in a single week, then these betting options are ideal for you.
• Exotic Market bets consist of the most complex form of betting in League of Legends. These bets will include predicting specific in-game objectives and every specific outcomes. In order to guess these outcomes correctly you need a solid understanding of the meta and each individual team matchup. Some of the best odds are present in these markets, but they are also some of the hardest to predict.

In order to bet effectively, your best chance is to start playing singles bets on various matches until you are confident you can guess at least 75% of them. Once you achieve this, you can move on to making a simple system bet, where you give yourself a chance to miss one or two matches but still win the betslip.

Finally, once you are confident enough with your system bets you can try placing full blown accumulator betslips with four or more matches to get the ultimate payout.

LEC Predictions 2023

We provide weekly predictions for various leagues including the LEC in our LoL News section. Individual matches as well as mock betslips can be found there for your convenience. For the entire season we can outline several picks that should guide your main betting practices.

1. G2 Esports is the main favorite for winning the Summer Split in 2022. They placed 4th in Spring and still managed to win the trophy.
2. Rogue is the second best team in Europe and will likely perform well in both Regular Season Splits but flop in Playoffs.
3. Fnatic is likely the team that will be chasing both Rogue and G2 Esports the entire season, and finish 2nd in both Spring and Summer.
4. MAD Lions and Vitality are the underdogs in the LEC and are likely the teams that will battle for the last spot at Worlds 2022 Play-In.

We have largely covered everything you need to know before start betting on the LEC. Remember to check our daily news for specific predictions and take your LEC betting slowly. We can also recommend you choose your betting provider carefully, and look to fully utilize an esports betting bonus for your initial bets.

History of the LEC

The LEC was first launched in Spring of 2013 and has had a Summer and Spring split every year since then. Up until 2019, the LEC was part of the dual League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) brand shared between North America and Europe. Start with 2019, the European series was re-branded into the LEC, while their North American colleagues retained the LCS brand.

Each year in the LEC has two champions one for the Spring Split and one for Summer Split. Most LEC trophies have been won by either Fnatic or G2 Esports. There was only one occasion when EU had a different champion. Team Alliance won the 2014 Summer Split, marking the only instance where G2 Esports or Fnatic were not champions in Europe.

Only Fnatic has been part of every Split since the beginning in 2013 – the other teams are more recent.

Since the beginning of the franchising era, more LEC teams have been on the rise to dethrone G2 and Fnatic. Teams like MAD Lions, Rogue and even Misfits Gaming were able to beat them and finish above them in the standings. In particular, Rogue was able to win first in the Summer regular split both in 2020 and 2021. Despite not winning the Splits in the playoffs, they became one of the more recognized teams in the LEC thanks to their consistency.

On the other hand, MAD Lions was regarded as the most successful team in 2021. Despite finishing 3^rd in both regular splits, the Spanish organization really stepped it up when it mattered, as they won back-to-back LEC titles. They became the third team to achieve such a milestone, after Fnatic and G2.

The LEC is progressively increasing its competition, as more and more teams are becoming stronger. In 2022, Vitality created a very strong roster, with superstar players like Alphari and Perkz. From 6^th in Summer last year, Vitality is looking to become immediately a top-tier team that will fight for the top. As a result, the LEC will have a very top-heavy standings, with all these teams have the potential to win the title.

List of LEC Champions:

• 2013 Spring – Fnatic
• 2013 Summer – Fnatic
• 2014 Spring – Fnatic
• 2014 Summer – Alliance
• 2015 Spring – Fnatic
• 2015 Summer – Fnatic
• 2016 Spring – G2 Esports
• 2016 Summer – G2 Esports
• 2017 Spring – G2 Esports
• 2017 Summer – G2 Esports
• 2018 Spring – Fnatic
• 2018 Summer – Fnatic
• 2019 Spring – G2 Esports
• 2019 Summer – G2 Esports
• 2020 Spring – G2 Esports
• 2020 Summer – G2 Esports
• 2021 Spring – MAD Lions
• 2021 Summer – MAD Lions
• 2022 Spring – G2 Esports
• 2022 Summer – Rogue

© LEC

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