When does League of Legends LEC 2023 Winter Split begin?

League of Legends LEC's 2023 season will introduce massive changes to the way the tournament is conducted. The entire format of the LEC has been altered, and this has created immense hype for the upcoming season.

The LEC 2023 Winter Split is set to begin on January 21. This time around, the LEC is looking to be more competitive, and Riot will hope to bring the event on par with the LCK and LPL.

Although there's no doubt that Europe has the best players, the previous structure created room for teams to make errors. This time, any mistakes and poor performances will be punished hard as the stakes have been raised.

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League of Legends LEC 2023 Winter Split will begin on January 21

League of Legends LEC 2023 will usher in a brand-new EMEA environment. Through EMEA, Riot Games is trying to create a more diverse and inclusive structure within Europe.

However, it is not merely a rebranding, as the LEC has been changed at its core. In the coming year, the LEC will have three Splits instead of two, and there will be a Grand Final at the end.

The Splits will be called Winter, Spring, and Summer, and as expected, each of them will have one winner. However, the winner of the Summer Split will no longer get a direct qualification to Worlds 2023.

Instead, the three winners across each Split and three other top teams (chosen based on points scored) will compete in the Grand Finals that will be held after the Summer Split. The top three teams from the Grand Finals will then qualify for Worlds 2023.

The shorter Splits with a Grand Finals at the end will force the teams to perform better. It will also solve some of the issues that arose in 2022. For example, MAD Lions qualified for the League of Legends World Championships without winning a single best-of-five match. However, in the LPL (China), LNG failed to qualify despite playing five best-of-five games and losing only two games. This resulted in a lot of criticism since Europe was sending teams to the World Championships that did not deserve the spot, according to many fans.

As it happens, the brand new structure from 2023 onwards will ensure that teams need to consistently win games to qualify. Apart from that, best-of-three games will also be introduced to League of Legends LEC in the coming year, alongside best-of-one and best-of-five matches.

In short, the competition will be fierce, and teams will have to showcase their best from the very first day. There have been cases in the past where teams started off poorly but peaked right before the playoffs began.

This has been the case even with teams like G2 Esports and Fnatic, who are arguably the most successful European League of Legends teams ever. Even these teams will now have to start making plays in early games or risk losing a spot in the Grand Finals of the LEC.

It won't be necessary to win the Split, but being consistently at the top is something that will be prioritized and rewarded in the coming year.