The League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional League of Legendsesportsleague run by Riot Games in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season is divided into three splits: Winter, Spring and Summer. At the end of the season, the top performing teams qualify for various international events: the First Stand Tournament by winning the Winter Split, the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) for the top two teams of the Spring Split, the League of Legends World Championship for the top three teams of Summer Split.[1] The LEC represents the highest level of League of Legends play in the EMEA region.
With the exception of some touring events, all games of the LEC are played live at the Riot Games Arena in Adlershof, Berlin, Germany.[2] In addition to a small studio audience, all games are streamed live in several languages on Twitch and YouTube, with broadcasts regularly attracting over 300,000 viewers.[3]
The popularity and success of the LEC has attracted significant media attention. On 30 September 2016, the French Senate unanimously adopted the last version of the Law for a Digital Republic[fr], significantly improving the visa process for LEC players and esports athletes in general, giving a legal framework to esports contracts, introducing mechanisms to ensure payment of cash prizes, specifying rights for minor esport athletes, and more.[4] A few months before, France also introduced a new esports federation, "France Esports", which has the duty to be a representative body of esports towards the government and serve as a "partner of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee for all matters relating to the recognition of electronic sports as sport in itself".[5]Spain did the same in November 2016, creating the Spanish Federation of Video Games and Esports Spanish Federation of Video Games and Esports.[6][7] The LEC has attracted sponsorships from LG UltraGear, Kia,[8]Red Bull,[9] and Erste Group.[10]
Fnatic is the only team remaining that has played in every split since the inaugural 2013 Spring Split. G2 Esports is the team with the most champion titles, with 16 in total.
Previous names
2013–2018: European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS)
2019–2022: League of Legends European Championship (LEC)
2023–present: League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC)
History
Riot Games launched League of Legends in October 2009 and attracted attention from the competitive gaming community.[11] The first two seasons of competitive play consisted of a series of tournaments mostly organised by third parties, such as Intel Extreme Masters in Europe, capped by a world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games.[citation needed]
Riot Games announced the formation of the LCS on 6 August 2012,[12] creating a fully professional league run by the company with a regular schedule and guaranteed salaries for players, featuring eight teams. Since the LCS was only launched in the third year of professional play, it was dubbed "Season 3". The top three finishers in the Riot Games European regional championships held in August 2012 automatically qualified, with the remaining five teams being decided in qualifier tournaments held in January 2013. Each LCS season is divided into two splits for spring and summer; the first games of the first spring split took place on 7 February 2013 in North America and on 9 February 2013 in Europe.
At the end of the 2014 season, an expansion tournament was held in Europe that added two teams in region, giving the LCS a total of 10 teams for the start of the 2015 Season.[14] Additionally, Riot introduced the concept of "Championship points", which teams would earn based on performance across both splits and playoffs in order to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship.[15]
A new sale of sponsorship rule was instated for the 2015 season. As a result, several teams were forced to rebrand and leave their respective parent organisations.
The 2015 Summer European LCS Finals were played at Hovet Arena, Stockholm.[16] The series ended with Fnatic winning 3–2 over Origen and peaked at close to 1 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, YouTube, and Azubu – the highest number of viewers for any LCS match to date.[17]
The 2016 Spring European LCS finals were held at Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, with G2 winning 3–1 against Origen, making it their first LCS title.[18] The 2016 Spring European LCS split was the first time G2 played in the professional LCS after having been promoted due to winning the European Challenger Series and European Promotion Tournament in summer 2016.
The 2016 Summer European LCS finals were played at the Tauron Arena in Kraków, Poland. G2 won 3–1 against Splyce and secured their second LCS title.[19]Splyce would later win the 2016 Summer European Gauntlet and qualify for Worlds as the third-seeded European team.[20]
The 2017 Spring European LCS finals were held at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany, where G2 won 3–1 against Unicorns of Love,[21] securing their third LCS title and qualifying for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), an annually-held international League of Legends competition. G2 placed second at the MSI 2017, losing 1–3 to SKT T1, the Korean representatives, in the finals.[22] The Summer Split LCS finals took place in Paris at the AccorHotel Arena,[23] where G2 Esports won 3–0 against Misfits Gaming.[24]
In 2019 the league rebranded from the "Europe League Championship Series" (EU LCS) to the "League of Legends European Championship" (LEC) and began franchising.[25] Following the example of North America's LCS, which franchised a year prior, the LEC selected ten permanent franchise partners, replacing the previous promotion and relegation format. The EU LCS' secondary league, the EU Challenger Series (EUCS), was consequently discontinued and replaced with an independent tournament named European Masters, which features the top teams from Europe's many regional leagues.[26]
In 2020, the league announced via their public Twitter account a partnership with a proposed Saudi Arabian city, Neom. Following major community backlash over the human rights abuses in the country, including criminalization of LGBT people, the partnership was called off the next day. [27]Another two days later, the league's Director of Esports EMEA, Alberto Guerrero, put out a statement apologizing to the community for the partnership decision, with emphasis on apologizing to 'women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and League of Legends players in the Middle East'.[28]
Since 2023, Turkey, CIS and MENA have merged with Europe region to become a EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region. The "League of Legends European Championship" become the "League of Legends EMEA Championship", meaning teams from Turkey and CIS's leagues (TCL, LCL) will no longer get direct slots for the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship. TCL will be a qualification of Tier-2 league EMEA Masters.
The Trophy
The LEC Trophy was made by English silverware company, Thomas Lyte.[29] The design of the trophy was inspired by the format of the tournament and its ten competing teams. Each team is represented by an individual column which cascade in a spiralling motion until one column rises to the top, and is named LEC Champion.[30]
The trophy was designed by the LEC’s chosen designers, DesignStudio, with Thomas Lyte’s master craftsmen on hand to help advise on how to turn a design into a 3D object in stunning silver.[31]
The trophy was made in 2019, and stands at 1m in height.[32]
Current format
Since the rebrand of the league in 2023, 10 teams, selected through franchising, compete in the LEC. Each season is divided into three splits. Each split varies in format, but the top teams in each split qualify for the three international League of Legends events - First Stand for Winter, the Mid-Season Invitational for Spring, and the World Championship for Summer.
In 2023 and 2024, the three splits offered Championship Points to teams, with these points determining teams that qualified for a season-ending event known as the Season Finals. This was a double elimination, with the top 4 seeds qualifying for the upper bracket.
Overview (2025)
Winter Split
Stage 1
10 teams
Single round-robin, best of one
Top 8 teams advance to Stage 2
Stage 2
8 teams
Double elimination, best of three for the first two rounds of the upper and lower bracket, best of five from then on
All matches in this stage utilize Fearless Draft, where picked Champions can't be played in future games within the series
The LEC primarily reaches its viewers through online streaming using its own channels on Twitch and YouTube. On Twitch alone, viewership numbers regularly exceed 200,000 for regular season play,[37] and the games have drawn over 1.7 million unique visitors.[38] In Spring 2020, the LEC reached an average minute audience of over 220,000.[39] with the Spring Finals peaking at over 817,000 consecutive viewers.[40][bettersourceneeded] However, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck stated in 2012 that there were no immediate plans to try to bring the LCS to traditional TV, but news coverage of the regular season isn't generally limited to dedicated electronic sports news sites, such as CBS Interactive's onGamers.[41]
The scale and popularity of the LEC itself, however, has attracted considerable media attention,[42] particularly around some events that legitimised the LEC as a serious competition.
The LEC announced a controversial sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabian city Neom in 2020. Neom was accused of human rights violations, including “forced eviction” of the Huwaitat tribe from their homeland in order to build Neom. In response, many of LEC's staff threatened a walkout, which led to the sponsorship being cancelled.[46]
Notes
1 2 Team had competed as Excel Esports before. On 14 December 2023, Excel Esports and Giants Gaming announced merger, forming GIANTX.[33] Giants Gaming had been competing in EU LCS from 2013 to 2018.
↑ Karmine Corp acquired their LEC spot from Astralis in October 2023.
1 2 Team had competed as Splyce (2016-2019) and MAD Lions (2020-2023) before. In January 2024, MAD Lions merged with KOI (and Movistar Riders), forming Movistar KOI. During 2024 they competed as MAD Lions KOI.
↑ Natus Vincere acquired their LEC spot and roster from Rogue on June 13, 2025.[34]
↑ Team Vitality acquired their LEC spot from Gambit Esports in December 2015.
↑ On October 6, 2022, Rogue announced a merger with KOI. This will result in the existing Rogue teams rebranding to KOI. Following Infinite Reality's split with KOI in 2023, the team was reestablished.
↑ On 8 January 2015 was rebranded as Elements.[43] The team competed under that name until 16 May 2016, when it was dissolved and sold their LCS seed and roster to Schalke 04 Esports.[44]
↑ On September 15, 2020, Origen merged with Astralis.[45] The team competing under that name from 2021 to 2023.
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2025 LEC season 
