With still a month to go before the action begins, join me as we go over and prepare for the upcoming Winter split of the European Championship!
Team Changes
Probably one of the most jarring changes for veteran LEC fans are the numerous team and roster changes. Astralis, EXCEL, and KOI are all gone - in a sense at least.
- Astralis has sold their LEC spot and it has promptly been acquired by Karmine Corp, a team that has dominated the LFL for the past year.
- On the other hand, KOI has simply undergone a name change. Rogue joined the LEC in 2019 before being rebranded into KOI for the 2023 Season. Most players have been transferred into Rogue, though the roster is still under construction.
- EXCEL has undergone a metamorphosis as well, having merged with Giants to create GIANTX. Odoamne, Peach, and Patrik have remained in the active roster, while Abbedagge and LIMIT are currently teamless.
Some new faces and old.
Schedule & Time Changes
The 2023 Season introduced the three-split season, and Europe continues to be the only region that employs this sort of split division. The 2024 Season will, therefore, also be split into Winter, Spring, and Summer just like before. However, there will now be more time between each split (one week extra) and a smaller gap between the Summer Playoffs and the LEC Season Finals.The Winter Split will kick off on Saturday, the 13th of January starting from 17:00 CET. Games will take place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, as was established in the 2024 Season, though, as you can tell, the games will start one hour earlier than before.
Format Changes
One huge change coming to the upcoming splits involves the format itself. While the regular season is remaining untouched - ten teams participate in best-of-ones - the top eight teams will now qualify directly into Playoffs, rather than into the group stage.
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The new playoff stage, sourced from the LEC twitter.
Championship Points & Worlds Qualification
Also introduced in 2023, Championship Points are the way the LEC determines which teams qualify for the LEC Season Finals event. How well they do at the Finals decides whether or not a team will qualify for World Championship. The LEC has declared the system a success, but has included two small changes for the 2024 Season.
Firstly, the LEC will now allocate the same amount of points to our fifth and sixth, and seventh and eighth-place finishers for each split. Previously fifth place would earn 50, sixth 40 points, seventh 30, and eighth place 20 points. Now, fifth and sixth will earn 45, and seventh and eighth 30. Check out the full championship point distribution for 2024 below:
Finally, another small change is that the winner of the Summer Split from here onwards will automatically qualify for Worlds, rather than need to duke it out still in the Season Finals. This ensures that the team that's been doing the best most recently to Worlds gets a chance to play on the big stage. Second and third place in the Summer split will also automatically qualify for the LEC Season Finals, regardless of the amount of championship points they've earned.
