LEC Spring Split Schedule and Preview: When does LEC 2022 start?

All over the globe, competitive League of Legends is already starting back up this week. Over in Europe, the LEC will be shifting back to an online format for Spring 2022, as the surge in COVID-19 cases worldwide makes LAN tournaments a difficult prospect right now. Still, fans will definitely be looking forward to seeing their favorite teams and players back in action—especially after that crazy off-season, which not only saw roster shuffles between teams in the LEC but several moves across regional leagues. Now that the dust has settled, here's what lies ahead for the LEC, including when it starts and the teams taking part.

LEC Spring Split 2022: Schedule, Teams, Preview

LEC Spring 2022 Schedule and Format

The LEC Spring Split 2022 will go live on your Twitch screens on January 14, 2022, 9 AM PST or 12 noon ET. The regular season will run for eight weeks following a three-day schedule from Friday to Sunday. The final set of games will take place for the weekend of March 4-6, 2022, before the playoffs begin the week after.

The European league will continue to follow a best-of-one format for its regular season, with 10 teams duking it out in a double round robin. In each head-to-head, each team will get to be on the blue side and red side once. With the matches spread out only over three days a week, fans will get to catch five games per day—meaning that each of the 10 teams will get to play once a day, thrice per week. However, if you miss the games, you can also catch the VODs on the official lolesports website.

At the end, the top six teams in the standings qualify for the Spring playoffs. The top four teams are seeded into the winners' bracket, while the 5th and 6th ranking teams go into the first matchup for the lower bracket. The loser of that series gets eliminated right away from playoff contention. In contrast, the upper teams essentially would compete in a double elimination. If they lose, they fall to the LB first and have another chance to redeem themselves. The playoffs are best-of-five for all series, with the champions heading to the Mid-Season Invitational should the international event push through this year.

LEC Spring 2022 Teams

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LEC Spring 2022 Preview

After Western teams all but crashed and burned at the World Championships in 2021, we saw some movement across the borders during the off-season. Luka “Perkz” Perković, former G2 icon who had spent a solitary season at Cloud9, has returned to EU. This time, he will compete under the Team Vitality (VIT) banner. Similarly crossing from EU to NA last season and now coming back to EU for 2022, top laner Barney “Alphari” Morris made the move from Team Liquid (TL) to Vitality. Meanwhile, Fnatic star Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau went the other way to take up the mantle as TL's top laner.

In another interesting roster change, Europe's third seed MAD Lions picked up a familiar figure in William “UNF0RGIVEN” Nieminen. He's a mechanically gifted ADC who has had a polarizing career to say the least. Other veteran faces like G2's mid-jungle core of Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther and Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski will also look to stamp their dominance in the region, after a disappointing 2021 campaign that saw the org just miss out on Worlds. Meanwhile, fans will rue the exit of Martin “Rekkles” Larsson—you'll have to catch Karmine Corp's games over in the French league (LFL) if you want to watch the superstar ADC play.

On Friday, the first day of the LEC leads off with the new-look, strong-on-paper Vitality squad taking on the only EU team that had advanced to Worlds knockouts in MAD Lions. Afterwards, reigning LEC champions Rogue (RGE) kickstart their title defense against SK Gaming. They will then play the opening match for the second day against Misfits Gaming (MSF).

FNC and VIT close out the second day as rising mid star Marek “Humanoid” Brázda faces off with one of the best Western League of Legends players in Perkz. The first match week also ends on an exciting note as MAD goes up against a hungry G2 looking to avenge their upsetting 2021 finish.

Meanwhile, in March, the Spring Split will wrap up with a Fnatic-MAD matchup on the first day. If the season unfolds according to early expectations, MAD Lions have their hands full with a game against Vitality the next day. FNC and G2, meanwhile, get a “lighter” schedule, as both face EXCEL and Team BDS. Though, it's possible that at that point the games may not matter much for the standings.

As the culminating match of the regular season, fans will be hyped to see RGE and G2 square off on the final day, and that game may well have playoff seeding implications. Certainly, we can't forget about the defending title-holders Rogue. While their untimely exit at Worlds may have swept the team under everyone's radar, they'll be more than eager to start building a legacy domestically. It's all there for the taking, after all—to push out the powerhouse FNC and G2 teams and create a new narrative at the pinnacle of League of Legends in Europe.