League of Legends European Championship (LEC) - Summer Season 2020 - Berlin, Germany - 12.6.-6.9.2020

One of the most popular easports leagues around the world is back for summer season! Summer season of LEC is crucial for the teams, since top-4 teams will be awarded with the spot in Worlds 2020 tournament. For the first time ever, europe has four spots in Worlds. Previously major regions have had 3 spots, but this year China and Europe will get 4 spots. LEC regular season consist 10 teams and best six teams will advance to double-elimination playoffs. Totally new playoffs seeding will not seed teams to bracket by regular season standigs, but by championship points. Teams got championship points from spring playoffs and they will get more points depending their placement in the summer regular season. The playoffs bracket itself is familiar from spring season playoffs. This year there will be no regional qualifiers for worlds, since all four spots will be decided in summer season playoffs. If you are new to League of Legends esports, please check out our viewer guide. 

LEC 2020 Teams

• Excel Esports
• FC Schalke 04
• Fnatic
• G2 Esports
• MAD Lions
• Misfits Gaming
• Origen
• Roque
• SK Gaming
• Team Vitality

Format

Regular season

• Ten teams will face each other twice.
• Matches are played as best of one series.
• The top six teams will advance to the playoffs.
• The regular season lasts eight weeks. In weeks 1 and 8 teams will play 3 matches a week, in other weeks teams will play 2 matches a week.

Playoffs

• Playoffs are played with slightly edited double-eliminatio bracket
• Teams are placed on the bracket according to Championship points. Championship points are awarded to the top six teams of the spring playoffs and to the top six teams of the summer regular season.
• The top four teams are placed at the upper side of the bracket and the remaining two teams meet at the bottom side of the brakcet.
• The team with the most Championship points is allowed to choose their opponent for the first round of the playoffs. They can choose between 3rd and 4th seed teams.
• In the second round of the losers bracket, the winner of the first round will face a team that dropped down from winners bracket and has lower amount of Championship points
• In the third round of the losers bracket, the winner of the second round will face the remaining team that dropped down from the winners bracket after rist round.
• In the fourth round of the losers bracket, the winner of the third round will face the loser of the winners bracket final and the winner of this match will advance to the final against the winner of winners bracket.
• All matches are played as best of five series.

The Prize Pool

Regular season

• 140 Championship points
• 100 Championship points
• 70 Championship points
• 50 Championship points
• 30 Championship points
• 20 Championship points

Playoffs

• Worlds 2020 # 1 Representative - Main Event
• Worlds 2020 # 2 Representative - Main Event
• Worlds 2020 # 3 Representative - Main Event
• Worlds 2020 # 4 Representative - Qualifying Tournament

LEC Betting

LEC is one of the most popular esports leagues in the world, so betting is available on basically every betting site. Every week we predict the upcoming LEC matches and offer the latest betting tips for the weekends games. So you should follow the LoL news and get the hottest betting tips from our experts for each weekend.

Where to watch LEC matches?

The English main broadcast can be watched on the lolesports website or twitch.  Matches are played on Friday and Saturday. A more detailed match program can be found here. 

Preview

Favorites

G2 Esports

G2 Esports has now won the LEC three times in a row and thus will start this season as biggest favorite. The spring season we saw team’s star players Caps and Perkz in different roles than this season and this roleswap was largely the reason for the G2’s up and down performance in spring season. Now that the players are back in their original roles, we can expect great things from G2. With this roster G2 smashed everyone except FunPlus Phoenix in 2019 season, so anything less than championship from 2020 summer is unacceptable. G2 won the spring season, so they have largest amount of Championship points right now. That means that even if they stumble in the regular season, they will still have great seed for the playoffs.

Fnatic

Fnatic was the only team that was able to challenge G2 Esports at any level in the spring season. Sure, someone could bring up the MAD Lions - G2 and Fnatic - G2 playoffs series, but I don’t feel that the MAD Lions would have come even close to knocking down G2 when they play at the level we saw in the spring final. Fnatic has grown into a similar role we have seen G2 on for a couple of years now, meaning almost irresistibly strong in team battles and capable of playing almost any champion. Mithy has brought much needed courage to the pick & ban stage and Selfmade has sat in his role as jungler brilliantly. However, the team’s brightest star is definitely Bwipo, who has grown from the coin-tossing-style top laner who occasionally dying for no reason to the league’s best in his role during past year. If Bwipo continues to grow during the summer, Fnatic will be for sure in the Worlds this year.

Challengers

Origen

It’s a little confusing to put Origen among the challengers, but in all honesty its level in the spring season wasn’t on a par with the two teams mentioned above. None of the top teams have made player changes during the break, so expectastions for the summer season are more or less the same we ended up in the spring season. Origen is a steady performer, but it relies too much on a slow playstyle where they win the game in the alte game. It doesn’t work against top teams and other challengers have shown they have found answers against Origen's playstyle. Origen must either find new level in their tactics or change the way they play for the summer season. If Origen is not able to evolve, they will be in trouble when fighting for those Worlds spots. However, I do believe that Origen can improve, since they have experienced roster and coaching staff. Origen will be one of the top contenders for Worlds spots.

Misfits Gaming

One of the biggest suprises from spring season is now reinforced with Kobbe who got released from TSM! Misfits played a great spring season and now we can expect even more from the team. The only question mark for Misfits is Dan Dan, who plays feebly from time to time. When you face players like Odoamne, Bwipo, Alphari and Wunder, Misfits gives a little unnecessary advantage to opponents in the top lane. Sure Dan Dan will come to the summer season more experienced and we can hope that we will see a similar growth story as Fnatic’s Bwipo has shown us.

MAD Lions

Spring sensation! Now is the time for the young lions to show that spring season wasnät just a one season miracle. I pondered for a long time whether to put MAD Lions ahead of Misfits or not, but in the end I decided to appreciate the experience brought by Febiven and Kobbe to place Misfits ahead of MAD Lions talent for this season. If MAD Lions continue the develope like they did in the spring, it may well be that I am completely wrong and MAD Lions are the strongest contenders to go to Worlds. Now, however, the goal for MAD Lions is to play in the playoffs and thereby fight for a place in the Worlds. It would be a great experience for the young players.

Fighting for the spot in playoffs

Rogue

Rogue was a real disappointment in the spring season and i cant expect much more of them for the summer season. It’s very possible that Rogue will disprove my suspicions and place just behind the top two, but at least Rogue is my favorite for the last playoff spot. Rogue is perhaps the most tasteless and odorless team in the league, but it always manages to find the wins they need for a playoff spot.

Team Vitality

Team Vitality was an absolutely feeble team for most of the spring season and the biggest reason for this was Milica’s visa problems. Now, to our knowledge, these issues have been fixed and Vitality will be able to fight for the playoffs with full roster. For some reason, I do believe in Vitality and i want to raise them as second biggest favourite for that last playoffs spot.

Excel Esports

YoungBuck's golden touch wasn’t enough for the team in spring season and now the underperforming veterans Expect and Mickey have been replaced by newcomer Kryze and returning player Special. YoungBuck has brought real superstar newcomers to the league over the years, so my expectations for Kryze are high. Special has played in the league during past years in several different teams, but the real breakthrough has not yet been achieved. In this situation, bot lane duo of Patrik and Toren have to step up and lead the team in summer season. Thats why Excel has fallen slightly lower in predictions than where they ended up in spring season.

FC Schalke 04

The most confusing stuff of the entire spring season was Schalke’s lineup. However the benching of FORG1VEN and Gilius changed the direction of the team and towards the end of the season hte team looked like it might even beat one of its competitors. The benched duo is still in lineup, but it’s hard to see either of them playing during the summer season. On the other hand, even after the changes, the team is not really fighting for a spot in playoffs, so it may be that Schalke will have to make changes even during the summer season.

SK Gaming

The biggest and at the same time most confusing changes during the break happened in SK Gaming. The team was very hard to watch during the spring season and during the break not only the coach, but also part of the line-up has changed. Jesiz is a veteran pro player and he is sure to bring new insight to the team and be able to help young players develop. The team decided to let their top laner go, but instead of getting a new one, Jenax, who played mid lane in the spring season has now moved on to a new role. Newcomer ZaZee was acquired for mid lane. It will be very interesting to see if SK Gaming will be able to challenge other teams after the changes, or if it will fall far away from the playoffs again.