Downside Of The New LEC Format: Why We Won't See These Popular Teams For Six Months

It feels like the 2023 LEC Summer Split has just started off, but summer is already over for two teams. After an abysmal regular season, Team Vitality were already guaranteed to be knocked out before the last match day even started. Astralis were the other team unlucky enough not to bring in the results - and are now eliminated from the LEC in 2023 altogether.

But has this new format somehow ruined the fun in the LEC with some teams not playing for a total six months? 

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LEC 2023: New Format Rundown

The 2023 season saw a new format make its debut in the LEC. The regular season was cut down from a double-round robin to a single-round robin, effectively reducing the matches in best of 1-format to half of their previous amount. The regular season is hereby shortened from eight to three weeks, with every week now including three match days rather than two.

Instead of holding a second round, teams face off in a double-bracket best of 3-stage to conclude the teams going to the playoffs. However, only eight out of the ten LEC teams would qualify for the group stage - ninth and tenth place would be knocked out before the group stage even kicks off. Astralis and Team Vitality were the unlucky souls to share this fate.

How Astralis Cost Themselves A Shot At Worlds

In a personal statement shared on his Twitter page, Finn shared some of the issues his team faced throughout a difficult summer split. It seems like Astralis fell short to the pressure in the face of internal differences, despite the Swedish top laner believing that the squad was capable of winning the LEC. 

This comes back to haunt them after their strongest run in their LEC history that saw them finish the regular season in spring split in 2nd, only to then fall short in the group stage once more.

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Due to the summer split awarding about 50% more championship points than winter and spring, this ninth place hurt Astralis especially hard. Despite their two previous splits that saw two runs to the last decider match of the group stage, the team is currently sitting in seventh place and can no longer collect any further points. Only the top 6 teams in championship points qualify for the season finals, with each split's champion automatically qualifying. 

This sees them ending their 2023 season on July 3, which is the earliest date a team has ever ended a season in the LEC. They will have to wait until mid-January to participate in the competition again, which is more than six months away. To make it easier to picture how long of a timeframe that is: they are out of contention for the rest of the year before the second ranked split in solo queue has even started.

Will Team Vitality Get Another Chance After Difficult Summer Split?

Unlike Astralis, Team Vitality still has a theoretical chance to qualify for the season finals since they have a lot more championship points due to their playoffs run in spring split. 

However, they require SK Gaming to be eliminated in either seventh or eighth place and only one out of Fnatic, Team Heretics and Excel Esports to make it to the top three. If three of those teams collect the championship points required to overtake Vitality, the french organization will be eliminated from the LEC in 2023. 

Failure to qualify for the season finals will also prevent Vitality from being able to qualify for the World Championship. This would be the ultimate failure for Vitality's star-studded roster that was regarded by many as the LEC's next super team. A qualification would hand them a difficult task as they are guaranteed to start in the lower bracket, although redemption runs in the lower bracket are not unheard of in the LEC playoffs...

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