The League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) 2024 season is set to kick off on January 13 with the opening week of the Winter split.

This offseason has proved to be quite chaotic with numerous big roster moves, Karmine Corp replacing Astralis as the newcomers to Europe’s top LoL competition, and Riot Games announcing format changes for the league’s 12th season. Despite all that, the balance of power at the top has remained untouched.

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LEC 2024 format changes

Following a significant overhaul of the league structure in 2023, the LEC has introduced some more changes for the 2024 season. The three-split layout will remain; however, after determining that last year’s format didn’t give players enough time to rest between events, the length of the breaks has been changed.

Starting with the LEC 2024 season, the pauses between Winter and Spring splits and between the Spring split and Mid-Season Invitational will be lengthened by one week. To balance the schedule, the break between the Summer split and the LEC 2024 Season Finals will be shortened by one week.

Riot Games has also adjusted the LEC postseason. Besides merging the group stage and playoffs into a single bracket, the league changed how championship points and qualification for the LoL World Championship will work.

The LEC Summer champions will automatically qualify for LoL Worlds 2024 as the lowest seed, while the second and third teams will receive a direct bye to the Season Finals. The fifth and sixth teams will receive the same amount of championship points, as will the seventh and eighth teams.

In another notable change for the LEC 2024 season, the minimum age for players in the league has increased from 17 to 18.

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LEC 2024 Winter teams

The LoL EMEA Championship will again welcome 10 League of Legends esports teams, including three new names.

After merging with Spanish organisation Giants Gaming, Excel Esports have rebranded to GIANTX — a name adopted by all other Excel’s esports projects. The 2024 LEC season will also mark the return of Rogue, who reverted to their old brand in early November when KOI and Infinite Reality mutually dissolved their partnership.

Besides two rebrands, the LEC will welcome a new team, Karmine Corp, who acquired Astralis’ spot in the league after the French organisation bought 66.67 per cent of subsidiary AK-Game SAS.

• G2 Esports
• Fnatic
• GIANTX
• Karmine Corp
• MAD Lions
• Rogue
• SK Gaming
• Team BDS
• Team Heretics
• Team Vitality

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LEC 2024 Winter title betting odds

With the format changes and a new team entering the league, the LEC 2024 Winter split is bound to play out differently than the LEC 2023 season. However, according to the LoL betting odds, the balance of power hasn’t changed by much.

Once again, LoL betting sites have priced G2 Esports ($2.10) and Fnatic ($2.87) as the main candidates to win the league. The two LEC titans are well ahead of Karmine Corp at $8.00 on the third line of betting.

Even though the LEC proved very competitive in 2023, the outright betting markets suggest a massive gap between the leading squads and the rest. Team Heretics ($13.00) and Team Vitality ($21.00) are the only remaining squads given a chance to do some damage, with Rogue ($34.00), SK Gaming ($34.00), Team BDS ($46.00), GIANTX ($46.00), and MAD Lions ($51.00) all expected to struggle.

• G2 Esports – $2.10
• Fnatic – $2.87
• Karmine Corp – $8.00
• Team Heretics – $13.00
• Team Vitality – $21.00
• Rogue – $34.00
• SK Gaming – $34.00
• Team BDS – $46.00
• GIANTX – $46.00
• MAD Lions – $51.00

LEC Winter odds courtesy of GG Bet

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LEC 2024 Winter predictions

Since the league’s inception in 2013, there have been just four different LEC champions, with G2 Esports (12) and Fnatic (7) collecting 19 trophies between them. Besides MAD Lions dominating the 2021 season, there has not been much variety in the fight for the title, and it seems like this trend will continue in 2024.

G2 Esports were by far the most dominant team of 2023, and they travelled to South Korea on a mission to produce another deep run at LoL Worlds 2023. But even though G2 stumbled on the big stage, they kept the roster intact, understanding that they don’t need to change much to be competitive in the LEC.

Fnatic haven’t made any significant changes either. Their sudden resurgence in the final split of 2023 following a major roster overhaul made it clear that Fnatic are capable of great things. But they needed an X-factor to threaten G2, and the Black & Orange appear to have found it in ex-Kwangdong Freecs support Yoon “Jun” Se-jun.

Most other teams enter the LEC 2024 Winter under a question mark following lineup changes. That includes Team Heretics, who have signed the former G2 Esports trio Martin “Wunder” Nordahl Hansen, Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, and Luka “Perkz” Perkovi?.

The league’s newcomers, Karmine Corp, have put together a competitive lineup that could do well, but there are questions as to how mixing and matching players from several teams will work in the long term. But the most puzzling team entering the league are MAD Lions, who axed most of their division to build a majority-Spanish LoL roster around jungler Javier “Elyoya” Prades Batalla.

With eight of 10 teams changing most of their rosters or swapping out key players from 2023, the league will look much different from last year. And while there are no guarantees that G2 Esports and Fnatic will be as efficient, they enter the new season as the only two teams with established synergy and rosters that worked in LEC 2023.

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