The LEC Summer Split kicks off tomorrow! Read on to learn all about it, and check out what's changed since Spring and MSI.
LEC Summer 2024 Start & Schedule
Just like in Spring, the Summer Split games will take place on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. The regular season begins this weekend, and it will span from the 8th of June until the 30th. The playoffs will begin on the 12th of July and end on the 28th of July. The games will begin at 17:00 CET each day and end around 22:00 CET.
The Week 1 schedule has already been posted up online for you to see. The excitement will kick off with a match between Team Heretics and GIANTX tomorrow!
Sourced from LEC’s X account.
LEC Format
As before, the regular season will see 10 participating teams fight in a single round robin tournament. This means that every team will get to play every other team once. All matches in the regular season will be best-of-ones.
Once Week 3 concludes, two teams will be eliminated until the next year while the top eight will move on to the Playoffs, and then hopefully even onto Worlds. Round 1 and 2 of the Playoffs will feature best-of-three matches, while Round 3 and onwards will be best-of-fives. The Playoffs will utilise a double elimination bracket, which means that each team can afford to lose one match-up, but will be eliminated if they lose a second time.
LEC 2024 Season Finals
Six teams will be participating in the LEC 2024 Season Finals which is due to begin sometime in August. Of these, two participants will be the Winter and Spring Champions (in this year's case, these are both G2 Esports), the top three teams of the Summer Split, and the remaining teams will be chosen based on Championship Points. The current Championship Point standings are as such:
While things look dire indeed for each team below Team Vitality, there is still a chance for every single team in the LEC to make it to Season Finals and beyond, provided they perform up to snuff in the Summer Split and end somewhere in the top 3!
LEC Roster Changes
Karmine Corp
Probably the largest roster changes are happening, as perhaps expected, in Karmine Corp. Since entering the LEC league at the start of the year, Karmine Corp has nearly lost every single match they’ve played. Changes were expected, to be sure, but these ones? Karmine Corp has subbed out Bo and Cabochard in the jungle and top lane respectively, and brought in two imports.
Can "Closer" Çelik has played for the past four years in the LCS, firstly on Golden Guardians and more recently on 100 Thieves as their jungler. He's had some good splits, notably ending 1st in the LCS 2021 Championship and securing three Worlds appearances since 2019. Kim "Canna" Chang-dong is likely a more familiar name - this top laner hails from the LCK, where he's played on such teams as T1, DWG KIA, and Dplus KIA. Canna was notably left without a team for the 2024 season so he's seemed to have broadened his horizons, and landed on Karmine Corp for the Summer Split.
Canna last year at the 2023 Season World Championship. Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
GIANTX
GIANTX is in a similar position to Karmine Corp. Though they've managed to put up a better fight, GIANTX has only narrowly made it to playoffs in Winter and Spring, ending 8th and 6th respectively. Some changes had to be made, and GIANTX have decided the change would happen in the jungle. Peach, an LCK import who's been in the LEC since 2022, will be replaced by LVP (aka SuperLiga, the Spanish League) player Antonio "Th3Antonio" Espinosa Bejarano. Th3Antonio has been a face in esports since 2016 and had the best success between 2019 and 2021. This will, however, be his first foray into the big leagues. Peach will continue to play on GIANTX’s academy team for now.
Peach joined the LEC in 2023 to play for Excel. Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
SK Gaming
Like GIANTX and Karmine Corp, SK Gaming needs to make it to top three in the upcoming Split for a chance to attend the Season Finals. SK Gaming had ended 3rd in the regular season of the Winter Split this year, but had terrible luck in the Spring Split, narrowly making it to Playoffs by securing 8th place in the regular season, then bowing out early, and ending 7th overall. They've made some changes bot lane for this Split, subbing out Exakick and Doss for LCK Challengers League players Cho "Rahel" Min-seong and Lee "Luon" Hyun-ho. While Doss has moved to SK’s academy team, Exakick is currently inactive.
Team Vitality
Finally we have Team Vitality, who are also making changes in the jungle, subbing out Daglas for Linas "Lyncas" Nauncikas. Lyncas is moving onto the big stage from the LFL, having played a myriad of different teams over the years, including Karmine Corp Blue earlier this year. Daglas has moved to Vitaly.Bee, Vitality's academy team for the foreseeable future. Team Vitality is on track to make it to the Season Finals based on the current Championship Point standings, but they still need to put in a good performance to secure their spot.
