Prior to the 2023 season, the LEC underwent several format modifications, and Team Vitality’s Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser believes that these improvements would raise Europe’s standard to entirely new heights. The LEC rivals will play more best-of-three and best-of-five series as a result of the new structure, which Kaiser believes will raise the calibre of European teams.
“I think best-of-fives will be the true test, we’ll see how well teams do there but I’m pretty confident that Europe is going to be better this split,” Kaiser said in an interview with Blix.gg on Jan. 24. “I think the split will be really competitive, of course.”
The 2023 LEC Winter Season and the future Spring and Summer seasons will begin with a best-of-one single round-robin, followed by best-of-three groups, and best-of-five playoffs. Kaiser acknowledged the best-of-one games that take place at the beginning will differ from the best-of-threes and best-of-fives later on in the season. “The nine best-of-ones we play right now are not indicative of everything that’ll happen in best-of-fives,” he said.
With this new format, European teams are set to play out many more best-of-threes this year, especially since there weren’t any in last year’s format. With three season playoffs and season finals, the number of best-of-fives will increase as well. Many European pros complained about the small number of games played in Europe compared to Eastern regions, so these changes should level up the playing field, at least in that regard.
The 2023 LEC Winter Season returns this Saturday, Jan. 28.