The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) Summer split has progressed to its group stage. The LEC Summer group stage features the eight remaining teams battling out in two double-elimination groups for the top four teams to qualify for the playoffs.
The standings for the regular season of LEC Summer was:
- 1) G2 Esports (8-1)
- 2) Fnatic (7-2)
- 3) Excel (5-4)
- 4) Team Heretics (5-4)
- 5) Team BDS (4-5)
- 6) SK Gaming (4-5)
- 7) MAD Lions (4-5)
- 8) KOI (4-5)
- 9) Astralis (3-6)
- 10) Team Vitality (1-8)
The LEC summer group stage begins on July 15 2023 at 18:00 CET/09:00 PST and ends on July 23. The group stage will be played on Patch 13.13 and likely feature some of the strongest champions on that patch.
With the teams split into two groups of four, it’s a battle to finish in the top two or be eliminated from the tournament.
LEC Summer Group A
Group A consists of:
- G2 Esports
- Team Heretics
- Team BDS
- KOI
The clear frontrunner of this group is G2 Esports. After a disappointing fourth place finish in Spring, the LEC Winter champions are looking to get their second trophy of the year.
Spearheaded by Rasmus “Caps” Winther in the mid lane, G2 Esports are expected to exit Group A comfortably in first place.
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Team Heretics are angling to take second place in the group. After a difficult year, Heretics had a resurgence with their new additions.
Mid laner Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié and bot laner Victor Lirola “Flakked” Tortosa have slotted in well and give this team the potential to make playoffs.
Team BDS have struggled for summer after a surprising string of success in Spring. The Spring silver medalists will need to find something special if they want to win in their LEC summer group. In particular, the top half of the map will need to step up its performance.
KOI will need to dig deep and pull out something unexpected to win in Group A. The team has done better in best-of series throughout the year than in the best-of-one regular season. Hopefully that magic will continue for their LEC summer group.
LEC Summer Group B
Group B consists of:
- Fnatic
- Excel Esports
- SK Gaming
- MAD Lions
Like their old rivals G2, Fnatic are the clear favorites to exit their group in first place. After struggling throughout the year, Fnatic have risen to the top with their new bot lane duo of Hyeon-taek “Noah” Oh and Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus.
Excel Esports finished third in the regular season for Summer, but they weren’t far ahead of their competition.
The player to watch for Excel is Min-gyu “Peach” Kim, whose unremarkable regular season indicates a potential weakness for opponents to exploit.
SK Gaming finished in sixth and are unlikely to finish top two in the LEC summer group.
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Their stand-out player is top laner Joel Miro “Irrelevant” Scharoll, who has been one of the best laners in the LEC.
At seventh place in the summer regular season, defending champions MAD Lions have had a difficult fall from grace.
Their unexpected streak through the end of Spring has not lasted into summer. With storied players like Javier Prades “Elyoya” Batalla and Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer on the team, it’s hard to ever count out the MAD Lions. However, this time they are in need of that MAD magic more than ever.
