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LEC
Of the eight teams that launched the EU LCS in 2013, only two still play in Europe's top league under their own name: Fnatic and SK Gaming. Everything else has changed — the name of the league, its formats, its teams, even the borders of the region. Here is how it went from eight teams playing best-of-ones to a twelve-team hybrid tournament opening the 2026 season.
2013–2018: The EU LCS years
Riot launched the EU LCS in 2013 — eight teams, two splits per year, promotion and relegation through the Challenger Series. Three teams were seeded directly via the Season 2 European Regionals (SK Gaming, Moscow Five and CLG.EU, the latter two soon rebranded Gambit and Evil Geniuses); the other five came through qualifiers — including Fnatic. Already world champion in 2011, the org won the inaugural split and stacked seven titles before franchising.
The league expanded to ten teams in 2015, the year of Fnatic's 18-0 perfect summer. Then came the format chaos: best-of-twos in Summer 2016, two groups in best-of-threes in 2017, back to a single best-of-one round robin in 2018. Three formats in three years.
G2 Esports entered in 2016 and won four straight titles. Fnatic answered in 2018 with a double crown and a Worlds final — the first for a Western team since Season 1. But relegation made long-term investment riskier and less predictable, and NA had already franchised. Europe was next.
2019: Franchising — the LEC is born
In November 2018, the EU LCS became the League of Legends European Championship. Relegation was abolished. Ten organizations became permanent partners: Fnatic, G2, Misfits, Schalke 04, Splyce and Vitality stayed — Origen, Excel, Rogue and SK Gaming joined.
Year one was a triumph. G2's superteam won both splits, took MSI 2019 and reached the Worlds final.
2020–2023: The slot economy
With relegation gone, buying a slot became the only way in — and prices exploded.
- 2020: Splyce became MAD Lions, Origen became Astralis.
- 2022: Schalke 04 sold its slot to Team BDS.
- 2023: Misfits sold to Team Heretics; Rogue competed under the KOI name in 2023, before the partnership unraveled and the Rogue brand returned for 2024
2023 also redrew the map. The LEC rebranded from "European" to "EMEA Championship," opening the league to teams and players from the CIS, Turkey and MENA. The calendar moved from two splits to three — Winter, Spring, Summer — plus a Season Finals.
2024–2025: Karmine Corp, then NAVI
The loudest entrance in LEC history came in 2024: Karmine Corp acquired the slot of Astralis. Excel and Giants merged into GIANTX the same year, while KOI, Movistar Riders and MAD Lions joined forces in 2024. The LEC team competed as MAD Lions KOI that year before adopting the Movistar KOI name in 2025.
In 2025, the Season Finals disappeared and each split fed an international event — Winter into the new First Stand, Spring into MSI, Summer into Worlds. Fearless Draft arrived. Mid-season, a declining Rogue sold its slot to Natus Vincere, the first new entrant since KCorp. In December, Team BDS rebranded to Shifters.
2025 also launched the LEC Roadtrip. The league had traveled before — finals in Rotterdam, Athens or Montpellier — but this was different: regular-season games hosted by the organizations themselves, with Movistar KOI and Karmine Corp filling arenas in Spain and France.
2026: LEC Versus opens the door
The 2026 season brought the most radical change since franchising. LEC Versus replaced the Winter Split: twelve teams, the ten partners plus the two best ERL squads in 2025 — Los Ratones and Karmine Corp Blue — competing in best-of-ones, then a double-elimination bracket under Fearless Draft, for EMEA's only First Stand spot. The first time non-partnered teams played in the league since 2019.
Spring and Summer were unified into one identical format — best-of-three round robin, top six to a best-of-five double-elimination bracket — sending two teams to MSI and three to Worlds. The Roadtrip expanded into a full slate of events across Spain and France.
The ten partners in 2026: Fnatic, G2, GIANTX, Karmine Corp, Movistar KOI, NAVI, Shifters, SK Gaming, Team Heretics and Vitality. Only four carry their 2019 branding; Fnatic and SK date back to 2013.
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