Debate over LEC’s lack of games reignites

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 28/08/2025

Popular LoL streamer and former professional player, Christian ‘IWDominate’ Rivera has reignited conversation regarding the LEC’s fallow schedule. The American content creator pointed out the grim reality of the LEC schedule, tweeting, “In a span of 28 hours WBG and JDG will have played 2 Bo3s. Giantx will play 2 Bo3s between August 5th and September 5th.”

The stat comes from two aspects: the LEC’s Round Robin format that sees five-team groups play each other only once, and GIANTX’s schedule, which saw it play twice in the first LEC week, leaving only two matches for the remainder of the regular season.

By contrast, Weibo Gaming and JD Gaming, as LPL participants, are part of the busiest of League’s sub-region of China.

LoL regions, number of games in contrast

Fans voiced opinions that Western League of Legends players will be perennially stuck, unable to catch up due to their lack of officials.

One fan replied to Dom’s tweet, stating, “It seems so obvious that we will never catch up to Asia in skill simply because they actually play the f***ing game, while in EU and NA teams are just watching most of the time. It’s crazy that LTA only plays 2 days a week.”

Certainly, four matches is very few. The LCK has the same group size for Rounds 3-5 of LCK 2025, but play twice a week over a 6-week period, with each group’s team playing each other three times.

Yet the LCK plays much less than the LPL, the LPL being widely regarded as League’s second-best region.

While Anyone’s Legend’s famous work ethic has brought them to within touching distance of the Korean rosters, T1 and Gen.G remain the favourites for World 2025 on esports betting sites.

Multiple commenters on social media pointed out that focusing solely on the number of matches is a simplistic measurement, pointing out the quality of officials and scrims as being a better metric of regional strength.

Regional strength and competition perhaps play a more important role than sheer numbers alone, but whether the LEC is giving itself a fighting chance in its current format, which does not allow players to experiment as much or gain experience on officials, is highly questionable.

Multiple commenters resultantly pointed out that the LEC is hamstrung by sharing a studio with Valorant, therefore restricting the possible schedule.

Is the LEC format hampering growth for new teams?

The issue returns to the zeitgeist again after NaVi’s admission to the LEC, following the acquisition of Rogue’s franchise spot. It is not known how much NaVi paid for their spot, however, the commonly quoted price for a seat at Europe’s top LoL table is €20,000,000.

After months of speculation and build-up for NaVi’s entrance into the LoL scene, the organisation have played all of their four regular season games in the span of four weeks, and will now have to wait until 2026 to compete again.

One fan on social media tweeted, “I am a NAVI fan. I want to see my favorite org do something in a new game. I watched 4 games in a month, and now have to wait like 4-5 months for the next one. How is this a normal experience? Why should I even care?”

They also did so competing with Spanish Jungler, Francisco ‘Thayger’ Mazo Sánchez, who the org knew would be replaced for 2026 before LEC Summer even began, with BK ROG’s Enes ‘Rhilech’ Uçan taking his place in the roster next year.

Effectively, the LEC format and the org gave fans of the new organisation little reason to get invested in the team on its first showing in the LEC.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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