LoL Major Changes Coming To LEC Season 2024

With Season 2024 of League of Legends on the horizon, one of the most popular Western League of Legends Championships has recently announced some upcoming changes coming to its 2024 Season. Along with the introduction of the Riot Games Arena that will host the competitive games, Riot Games is looking to further expand its Esports domination by securing even more talent and ways to boost the entertainment value of watching the best LoL players compete.

Season 2023 saw some very welcome changes, however, there were major gaps between the Playoffs which caused some mild frustration among the fans of the LEC. Hopefully, with these new changes, the competition itself will lend its way to more favorable opinions and better accommodate the Esports scene for the spectators and fans of the game.

We will be taking a close look at all of the announced changes coming to the format so we can prepare for the upcoming action in the LEC.

LEC Season 2024 Group Stage and Playoffs

It looks like the LEC will be merging the Group Stage and Playoffs in an attempt to make it easier and clearer to follow each team's performance so you can better track how the placements and competition overall are panning out during each split.

One of the most significant changes to the format next year will see us merge the Group Stage and Playoffs for each split into a single bracket. Our goal for this adjustment is to make it easier to understand and follow the competition as it progresses.

These brackets will have the same number of best-of-3 and best-of-5 series’ as before, with added repeat matchup protection for the Lower Bracket. This means that teams that have played against each other in the Upper Round 1, will not match against each other again in the Lower Round 2.

LEC Season 2024 Scheduling Updates

Some nice quality-of-life changes overall to the scheduling to allow players more time to rest between splits and MSI and to ensure that more viewers can tune in and watch their favorite teams compete.

We’re making some changes to our scheduling for 2024! To better support the well-being of our teams and players, we’re extending the break between Winter and Spring Split, as well as the break between Spring Split and MSI, by one week each. On top of that, to keep the overall season schedule balanced, we’re reducing the break between the Summer Split and the LEC Season Finals by one week.

We're also adjusting the start time with the first game starting at 5:00 PM CET each show day. Make sure to stay tuned for more specific details and dates in the future about the 2024 LEC schedule!

Hopefully, this will result in a more even-paced and well-rounded championship without sacrificing both the players' health and provide the viewers with adequate timeframes to better enjoy watching League of Legends.

LEC Season 2024 Championship Points and Tiebreakers

It looks like some noticeable changes will be coming to Championship Points as well, making it possible for teams that are stuck at the bottom of the bracket to have higher chances of coming back in the following Splits.

Championship Points (CP) will also be changing in 2024. While we’re satisfied with how they function to balance the value of each split throughout the year, we want to further optimise their importance across all 3 splits.

We’ll now allocate the same amount of points to our fifth and sixth, and seventh and eighth-place finishers for each split, while also raising the stakes and points on offer for each split. 

LEC Season 2024 Season Finals Qualification

This is a very interesting approach to determining finalists along with Worlds participation so we will be looking forward to any possible upsets that might happen during the Summer Split.

We’re putting more emphasis on Summer Split performance this year, with our Summer Champion automatically qualifying for Worlds as the lowest seed. Our Summer 2nd and 3rd placed teams will also qualify for the LEC Season Finals regardless of their CP, or past results.

Furthermore, if two teams end the year with the same amount of Championship Points heading into qualification for the LEC Season Finals, the team with the higher number of Championship Points earned in Summer will qualify. If they had the same amount of Championship Points in Summer, their Summer Split Regular Season head-to-head record will decide who qualifies. 

Hopefully, this does not mean that the other two splits will be left behind with teams primarily focusing on the Summer Split.

LEC Season 2024 Season Pre-Season Champions’ Queue

A very nice step to ensure that players feel comfortable playing Season 2024 of League of Legends so that we can get some quality games given the massive changes coming to Summoner's Rift for Season 14.

With the first patch of the season landing on January 9, only four days before the start of the LEC Winter Split, we wanted to ensure our LEC and ERL players could better prepare for competitive games on the new patch. 

With that in mind, we are opening up a Pre-Season Champions Queue on a special tournament server that mirrors the Public Beta Environment (PBE) on December 11 to give players the chance to practice the new patch in a controlled solo queue environment. 

The server will be open to LEC and first-division ERL players that are in the Global Contract Database (GCD) or ERL Player Database (EPD) to provide them with the best possible start to the season and reduce the pressure of learning the competitive meta in a short amount of time. 

Hopefully, the players will be able to stream their experience on the Pre-Season Champions Queue. 

LEC Season 2024 Season LEC Player Age Limit Changes 

A very important change regarding the players that are eligible to compete in the LEC.

Lastly, we will be raising the minimum age for players competing in the LEC from 17 to 18. After carefully evaluating the needs of our partnered teams, as well as assessing our recent player age history, we are increasing our age limit to enable teams and the LEC to explore additional revenue opportunities which we hope will help with sustainability, particularly in the current economic environment.

However, our ERL ecosystem still provides a pathway for up-and-coming EMEA talent – and so, with that in mind, the age restriction for competing in an ERL will remain at 16 years of age.  

And that's everything you need to know for now regarding the LEC 2024 Season. Stay tuned for any more information that might be coming from the organization, and most important of all, make sure to root for your favorite team during all of the splits!