LEC 2026, the League of Legends Esports experience in EMEA, is getting format changes to the Winter, Spring, and Summer seasons that should hopefully keep things interesting for fans and shake up the region.
To start with, the Winter season will be replaced with LEC Versus, a brand-new format that features the 10 LEC teams and two guest teams from across the EMEA. The two guest teams include the EMEA Masters Summer Champions and one specially-invited team that’s chosen based on standout and consistent performances.
LEC Versus will be a single round robin, best-of-one format to start with. The top eight teams will make it to the Playoffs, which will be a double-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches in the first two rounds and best-of-five matches for the remaining ones.
The winner will take the EMEA qualification spot for First Stand, the international tournament that features the Fearless Ban system. A breakdown of the LEC Versus bracket can be seen below:
For 2026, the Spring and Summer Splits will both be the same format. This follows the same Spring format from this year: a single round robin of best-of-three matches that go to best-of-five Playoffs.
These Splits are high-stakes competitions that lead to MSI and Worlds qualifications, so there are no best-of-one matches in them anymore. Fans can get a glimpse of what these LEC brackets will look like:
For more information about the LEC Versus and general questions about the format changes, check out the FAQ from League of Legends Esports EMEA here. There’s also further explanation in the video below:
