2025 LEC Season

The 2025 LEC season is the ongoing 13th season of the ''League of Legends'' EMEA Championship (LEC), a professional esports league for the video game ''League of Legends''. It is the first LEC season under the new three-split structure and competitive calendar introduced the game's developer Riot Games starting with the 2025 competitive season. As with previous years, the 2025 season is divided into three splits, Winter, Spring, and Summer — retaining its current split structure while removing Season Finals after two seasons.

League changes

As the LEC already had a three-split structure prior to Riot Games' announcement of a new split structure and competitive calendar for ''League of Legends'' esports beginning with the 2025 competitive season, the LEC only made minimal changes to its structure but made each split's format different. In addition, from 2025 onwards, the Season Finals would not be held and championship points would not determine a qualifier to the ''League of Legends'' World Championship.

Teams

Only one team change occurred heading into the 2025 season. Following a triple merger between KOI, Movistar Riders, and MAD Lions on 4 January 2024, MAD Lions KOI would be renamed to "Movistar KOI." The name change took effect at the beginning of the 2025 LEC season.

Patches

The LEC is playing on the live patch for the first time in its history, making the second domestic region to adapt it after the now-defunct League Championship Series (LCS), which is now part of the ''League of Legends'' Championship of The Americas.

Fearless Draft

As part of the initial changes to the 2025 competitive calendar, the Winter Split implemented the "Fearless Draft" format into the LEC. The format, which was popularized by China's LoL Development League, meant that teams could not pick a champion that they've already played in a series, even if the champion was picked by the opposing team. On 16 March 2025, prior to the final of the 2025 First Stand Tournament (which featured LEC team Karmine Corp), Riot Games announced that Fearless Draft would continue to be used for the rest of the 2025 season, including the LEC's Spring and Summer Splits and international tournaments.

Winter

The Winter Split regular season began on 18 January, with the Winter Split Finals slated for 2 March.

Format

Across three (3) weeks, all ten (10) competed in a single-round robin tournament where all matches were played in best-of-ones. The top eight (8) teams qualified to the playoffs, where an eight-team Double-elimination tournament bracket format was applied. Matches in the first two upper and lower rounds were contested in best-of-threes, while subsequent matches until the finals were played in best-of-fives. The winner of the Winter Split represented the LEC as its lone representative at the 2025 First Stand tournament.

Regular season

Playoffs

Awards

Spring

Format

The Spring Split features the same ten (10) competing teams from the previous split. It is a single-round robin tournament where all matches will be played in best-of-threes. Unlike the previous season, only the top six (6) teams will advance to the playoffs. The playoffs will be contested in a Double-elimination tournament bracket, where the top (4) teams in the standings being seeded in the upper round and the next two (2) teams in the lower round. All matches will be played in best-of-fives. The finalists of the Spring Split will qualify for the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational.

LEC Roadtrip

On 7 March 2025, the LEC announced the creation of the "LEC Roadtrip," where regular season matches will be held outside of the Riot Games Arena in Berlin. For the 2025 Spring Split, Movistar KOI will host four matches from 26-27 April at the Madrid Arena in Madrid, Spain; while Karmine Corp will also host four matches from 10-11 May at the Les Arènes in Paris, France.

Regular season

Tiebreaker

Due to the same game record of Team Heretics and Team Vitality, a tiebreaker best-of-one match was played on 14 May between the two teams to determine the sixth seed in the playoffs, which Team Heretics won.

Playoffs

Awards

Summer

Format

All ten (10) competing teams will be divided into two groups of five teams. Each team in their respective groups will play other teams once in a best-of-three series match. The top two (2) teams from each group will progress to the playoffs, and the lowest-ranked teams in each group will be eliminated. Third and fourth-ranked teams in each group will play cross matches, also in best-of-threes, to determine the final two playoff berths. Similar to the Spring Split, the playoffs will be a Double-elimination tournament bracket, where the top (4) teams in the standings being seeded in the upper round and the winners of the crossplay deciding matches in the lower round. All matches will be played in best-of-fives, with the top three (3) teams in the playoffs securing qualification for the 2025 ''League of Legends'' World Championship. If an LEC team finishes as a finalist at MSI 2025, it will have an additional fourth slot in the tournament.

The end of the Summer Split would also take place in a roadshow. On 27 April 2025, the LEC announced that the Summer Split Finals will be held at the Caja Mágica in Madrid, Spain from 26-28 September.

References

{{2025 in League of Legends competition

League of Legends EMEA Championship seasons
2025 in esports
2025 multiplayer online battle arena tournaments