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How the LEC’s 2023 format benefits audience but creates an issue for players

A couple of months ago Riot Games revealed that the League of Legends’ LEC competition was getting rebuilt, players and fans alike were speculative yet excited to see how the 2023 season would end up looking like. For fans, shorter regular seasons meant much more intense matchups, which could lead to iconic runs and shocking upsets.

After 2 splits under this new format, both staff members and players have also expressed their own opinions on the changes. One of the more vocal members is MAD Lions’ head coach James “Mac” MacCormack, who brought up one issue that could become increasingly worse on almost all players within the LEC, mainly on the latter stages of the game.

LEC’s logo
LEC’s logo

Mac via official LEC video:

“I think the only caveat is everyone is gonna be burnt out by the end of the year at Worlds” “Normally, people are burnt out by the end of the year at Worlds anyway, that makes me a bit worried that a lot of European players are going to be very, very burnt out by the end of the year.”

Throughout the video, players and coaching staff expressed their feelings about how the pace has changed significantly since the league implemented this new format since teams are required to synergize extremely fast without much time to adjust. Mac later made a point on his idea by comparing the last couple of splits versus the 2023 format, stating that if last year was a marathon, this year feels like several sprints one after the other.

The new format also forces players and teams to prioritize areas they haven’t before, while also exposing squads to a plethora of best-of-three and best-of-five series to gain more experience moving into international play. As mentioned before it is amazing to prepare for playoffs and international tournaments gameplay which is rather different to regular season contests, however the implementation of these changes seems a bit crude and sped up.

Several players have expressed how the season has been more exhausting than usual, mainly thanks to 2 more hours being added to practice schedules on top of other ways to improve faster than usual. Because of this added practice time, Mac also mentioned that teams have deprioritized elements such as VOD reviews, team building activities, physical workouts, and most of their non-curricular activities, in favor of pure gameplay practice.

Ultimately, the LEC’s format has provided an incredible viewer experience at the cost of extra work for both players and staff. Only time will tell if it can sustain itself moving forward.

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