League of LegendsEMEA Championship

Upcoming season or competition: 2026 LEC season
Formerly	EuropeanLeague of Legends Championship Series (2013–2018) League of Legends European Championship (2019–2022)
Game	League of Legends
Founded	2013
Owner	Riot Games
Commissioner	Artem Bykov
No. of teams	10
Venues	Riot Games Arena,Berlin
Continent	Europe (2013–2022) Europe, Middle East and Africa (since 2023)
Most recent champion	G2 Esports (17th title) (Summer 2025)
Most titles	G2 Esports (17 titles)
International cups	First Stand Tournament Mid-Season Invitational World Championship
Related competitions	CBLOL,LCK,LCP,LCS,LPL
Official website	lolesports.com

TheLeague of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professionalLeague of Legendsesportsleague run byRiot 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: theFirst Stand Tournament by winning the LEC Versus tournament, theMid-Season Invitational (MSI) for the top two teams of the Spring Split, theLeague of Legends World Championship for the top three teams of Summer Split.^[1] The LEC represents the highest level ofLeague 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 inAdlershof,Berlin, Germany.^[2] In addition to a small studio audience, all games are streamed live in several languages onTwitch andYouTube, 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, theFrench Senate unanimously adopted the last version of theLaw 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 theFrench 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] andErste Group.^[10]

Fnatic is the only team remaining that has played in every split since the inaugural2013 Spring Split.G2 Esports is the team with the most champion titles, with 17 in total.

• 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)

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 asIntel Extreme Masters in Europe, capped by aworld 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.

Season 3 of the LCS finished with the top three finishersFnatic, Lemondogs, andGambit Gaming. The top three teams advanced to theSeason 3 World Championships.

Riot Games changed naming conventions in 2014, calling the season the "2014 Season" instead of "Season 4". TheLeague of Legends Challenger Series was created as a second tier of competition forpromotion and relegation.^[13]

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 theLeague 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 atHovet Arena,Stockholm.^[16] The series ended withFnatic winning 3–2 overOrigen and peaked at close to 1 million concurrent viewers onTwitch,YouTube, andAzubu – the highest number of viewers for any LCS match to date.^[17]

The 2016 Spring European LCS finals were held atRotterdam Ahoy inRotterdam, withG2 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 theTauron Arena inKraków,Poland. G2 won 3–1 againstSplyce 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 theBarclaycard Arena inHamburg,Germany, where G2 won 3–1 againstUnicorns 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 toSKT T1, the Korean representatives, in the finals.^[22] The Summer Split LCS finals took place in Paris at theAccorHotel Arena,^[23] whereG2 Esports won 3–0 againstMisfits 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'sLCS, 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 proposedSaudi Arabian city,Neom. Following major community backlash over thehuman 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 andMENA have merged with Europe region to become a EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region. The "League of LegendsEuropean Championship" become the "League of LegendsEMEA Championship", meaning teams from Turkey andCIS's leagues (TCL,LCL) will no longer get direct slots for theMid-Season Invitational and theWorld Championship. TCL will be a qualification of Tier-2 league EMEA Masters.

The LEC Trophy was designed by DesignStudio and manufactured by English silverware company,Thomas Lyte.^[29] The design was inspired by the format of the tournament and its ten competing teams. Each team is represented by an individual column which cascades in a spiralling motion until one column rises to the top, and is named LEC Champion.^[30][31] The trophy was made in 2019, and stands at 1m in height.^[32]

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 internationalLeague of Legends events –First Stand for Winter, theMid-Season Invitational for Spring, and theWorld 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.

• 10 teams
• Single round-robin, best of one
• Top 8 teams advance to 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 utilizeFearless Draft, where picked Champions can't be played in future games within the series
• The winner of Stage 2 qualifies for theFirst Stand Tournament

• 10 teams
• Single round-robin, best of three
• Top 6 teams advance to Stage 2

• 6 teams
• Double elimination, best of five
• The winner and runner-up qualify for theMid-Season Invitational

• 10 teams, split into 2 groups of 5
• Single round-robin, best of three
• Top 2 teams in each group advance to Stage 2
• Third and fourth place in each group enter play-in for final two spots in Stage 2

• 6 teams
• Double elimination, best of five
  • Top 2 teams in each group from Stage 1 placed in upper bracket, play-in winners placed in lower bracket
• The winner, runner-up and third place teams qualify for theWorld Championship
  • If the LEC earns an additional seed from the MSI, the fourth-place team would be seed 4

Team	Debut	Roster					Head coach
		Top	Jungle	Mid	Bot	Support
Fnatic	Spring 2013	Oscarinin	Razork	Poby	Upset	Mikyx	GrabbZ
G2 Esports	Spring 2016	BrokenBlade	SkewMond	Caps	Hans Sama	Labrov	Dylan Falco
GIANTX	Spring 2019[a]	Lot	ISMA	Jackies	Noah	Jun	Guilhoto
Karmine Corp	Winter 2024[b]	Canna	Yike	Vladi	Caliste	Targamas	Reha
Movistar KOI	Spring 2016[c]	Myrwn	Elyoya	Jojopyun	Supa	Alvaro	Melzhet
Natus Vincere	Summer 2025[d]	Adam	Thayger	Larssen	Hans SamD	Malrang	fredy122
SK Gaming	Spring 2013	DnDn	Skeanz	Abbedagge	Keduii	Loopy	OWN3R
Team BDS	Spring 2022[e]	Rooster	Boukada	nuc	Ice	Parus	Striker
Team Heretics	Winter 2023[f]	Carlsen	Sheo	Kamiloo	Flakked	Stend	Machuki
Team Vitality	Spring 2016[g]	Naak Nako	Lyncas	Czajek	Carzzy	Fleshy	Mac

The LEC primarily reaches its viewers throughonline streaming using its own channels onTwitch andYouTube. 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 anaverage minute audience of over 220,000.^[39] with the Spring Finals peaking at over 817,000 consecutive viewers.^{[40][better source needed]} 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'sonGamers.^[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.

Teams initalics indicate teams that have been disbanded or no longer participates in the league.

The LEC announced a controversial sponsorship deal withSaudi Arabian cityNeom in 2020. Neom was accused of human rights violations, including “forced eviction” of theHuwaitat 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]

• Official 2021 Season LEC RulebookArchived 27 May 2023 at theWayback Machine

• League of Legends competitions
• Recurring sporting events established in 2013
• Sports competitions in Berlin
• Sports competitions in Germany
• League of Legends EMEA Championship

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