Riot Games have now announced the future of the LEC going into the following year, 2023. Their announcement explains that the European region will be merging with regions nearby. Türki̇ye, CIS and MENA will join the LEC and create a larger tournament with a larger community cheering for their teams' success. This approach will lead to a lot of new format changes. One of the more significant changes coming as early as January is a new split called the Winter split. Teams will qualify for the winter split by first playing in the ERLS. 

EMEA Regional Leagues

EMEA regional leagues are the foundation of the EMEA and the backbone of the new and improved ecosystem. The ERLS will consist of 13 different leagues that will offer teams of other regions the opportunity to qualify for the next stepping stone: EMEA Masters. 

EMEA Masters

EMEA Masters is the final step to qualify for the LEC EMEA and will act as the new proving grounds for the up-and-coming talents. 

LEC

The top esport teams in LEC go head-to-head in League of Legends in a display of excellence in both competition and entertainment. 

Introducing the new Format

The new format will introduce more matches and more esport to watch and enjoy, resulting in more LoL Fantasy! Each year will be divided into three six-week splits: Winter, Spring and Summer ending with the LEC Season Finals. 

Each split will start with a BO1 round-robin structure amongst ten teams qualified from the EMEA Masters. The next step in the split will be a group stage where the top eight teams compete in two groups. The group stage will be played as a double elimination where four of the best teams progress to the BO5 playoffs. 

The winners of each split will qualify for the LEC Season finals. There are six slots in the LEC season finals, and the tournament is four weeks long. The three other slots will be given to teams with the highest championship points. 

Mid-Season Invitationals

The next MSI in 2023 will be played after the Winter split and Spring split. The LEC Season finals and Summer split will take place after MSI. The spring split finals will decide the LEC's MSI representative. 

How do these changes affect Fantasy?

I want to begin by stating that the following are speculation based on the new information given by Riot Games. Our plans for League of Legends Fantasy 2023 are still brewing, and we can't wait to share our ideas with all of you. 

The different LEC Splits

The different splits would be structured close to what we already have experienced in previous tournaments. With a Play-in stage, a group stage, and playoffs. Given that the schedule allows for this setup, we will look at three different build phases during a six-week tournament. We are also working on having more dynamic sell tokens for this tournament. Instead of having two static sell tokens, you will be given one for each stage. You will also be unable to have more than two players from each team. This will make it harder for players to go all in on the favourites and hopefully make the fantasy teams more diverse and competitive. 

All the changes Riot games have made for the new season in 2023 will benefit our fantasy tournaments. Giving us more esport, more prizes and an overall better fantasy experience. 

As we have said previously, our plans are still brewing, and these are just speculations on how it can be played based on the recent announcement made by Riot. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on LoL 2023 and how we could give a better fantasy experience. Don't hesitate to contact us on Discord if you have any questions or want to discuss these new changes. 

Discord server

Talk to you soon,

Croowv