Today, Monday, January 10, 2022, the e-sports break in the League of Legends European Championship, or LEC, is almost over!

At least Riot Games wants to declare it over punctually at 4 pm. After two teasers via social media, the release of a new media production – most likely a music video including a song by Chrissy Costanza – is expected in the afternoon.

10.1.2022. 16:00 CET. pic.twitter.com/JymWrF0kLz

– LEC (@LEC) January 8, 2022

The teams, meanwhile, will not start the new – Season “until” next Friday, January 14, 2022, which, however, due to the ongoing restrictions and threats surrounding the coronavirus, will be completely remote must begin.

Especially at the studio location in Berlin, the numbers of infections are increasing again. Since the health and well-being of the players, coaches, other team personnel and employees is of course still a top priority for the organizers of the LEC, the teams from their own training facilities will participate in the duels.

Furthermore, this measure is intended to ensure that league operations can be guaranteed and maintained beyond a few match days. As the LEC emphasizes in the accompanying statement, they want to survey the situation around COVID-19 on a weekly basis and hope to welcome the players back to the gym as soon as possible – but only when it is safe for all involved.

LEC 2022 Matchday 1 – All Matches

The new LEC – Season kicks off with three matchdays in a row – one of two “super weekends”. Not only on Friday, but also on Saturday and Sunday all teams will be in action. As before, exciting duels await us in a best-of-1 format. The opening match will be between Team Vitality and MAD Lions and will start at about 6 p.m. on Friday evening.

The complete schedule can be found here:

Friday, January 14

6pm: Team Vitality – MAD Lions

7pm: SK Gaming – Rogue

8 pm: G2 Esports – EXCEL

9 pm: Misfits Gaming – Astralis

10pm: Team BDS – Fnatic

Saturday, January 15

5 pm: Rogue – Misfits Gaming

6pm: Team BDS – EXCEL

7 pm: SK Gaming – MAD Lions

8 pm: G2 Esports – Astralis

9 pm: Team Vitality – Fnatic

Sunday, January 16

5 pm: Team BDS – Misfits Gaming

6pm: Team Vitality – EXCEL

7pm: Rogue – Astralis

8pm: SK Gaming – Fnatic

9 pm: MAD Lions – G2 Esports

LEC 2022: We are especially looking forward to these teams and players

So we’re in for a matchday hat-trick to kick off LEC Spring 2022, with the ten teams having to prove they can achieve the goals and ambitions they’ve set for themselves. After the results of LEC Summer 2021, in which MAD Lions held on as champions and Fnatic and Rogue also qualified for Worlds 2021, the status quo will have to be reassessed.

Only MAD Lions made it to the round of the best eight at the international level with a show of strength. Rogue as well as Fnatic already failed in the group stage. So it was anything but cheerful for Europe in the international comparison lately. How these results have affected the morale and attitude of the teams, we will find out later this week. After three completed games per line-up, we should already be able to draw a rough picture of the form of the players and teams on Sunday evening.

Newcomer Team BDS: The Great Rise

Speaking of lineups, it’s not just the roster changes that we’ll be watching closely with excitement. With FC Schalke 04 Esports leaving the LEC after five long years and newcomer Team BDS, there will even be an entirely new organization to watch. The Swiss organization, which has previously enjoyed success in Rocket League and Rainbow Six, only entered League of Legends esports in May 2020. As a first step, they acquired a slot in the second division of the French LFL (Ligue Française de League of Legends) and replaced the Bastille Legacy team there. They won their first – Season there and were promoted to the first French league. Another promotion was achieved in June 2021, when they took over the LEC slot from FC Schalke 04 Esports for 26.5 million US dollars.

Team BDS starts with a lineup of three former Karmine Corp players Adam (Top), Cinkrof (Jungle), and xMatty (Bot), who should already be getting along well in the bracket. Adam returns to his old colleagues after his short time on Fnatic’s Toplane – albeit under a new banner. Completing the starting lineup are two former Schalker e-sports pros, Ilias ‘NUCLEARINT’ Bizriken (Midlane) and Dino ‘LIMIT’ Tot (Support).

But not only the players give hope for promising performances of the LEC newcomer. They will also be led by renowned coaches. The role of the head coach will be taken over by none other than the former German G2 coach Fabian ‘GrabbZ’ Lohmann. At his side will be Christopher ‘Duffman’ Duff as Assistant Coach and Rafael ‘Dinep’ Nunes.

What’s actually going on with G2?

We also await the first appearances of G2 Esports with extreme excitement. The former EU top dog and six-time LEC champion narrowly missed qualifying for the World Championship last time and only ended up in 4th place at the end of LEC Summer 2021. This was followed by a major restructuring. Only the positions Jungle and Mid are still occupied by players we already know from the past.

Jankos and Caps get three new players. Sergen ‘BrokenBlade’ Çelik, who last played for Schalke and was previously under contract with TSM, will take over the top lane. The G2 botlane will be occupied by Victor ‘Flakked’ Lirola (former MAD Lions Madrid) and supporter Raphaël ‘Targamas’ Crabbé (former Karmine Corp).

In early December, CEO and founder Carlos Rodríguez Santiago’s (ocelote) team also made new appointments to the coaching staff. After the departure of Fabian ‘GrabbZ’ Lohmann, the Head Coach position is now filled by Dylan Falco. Romain Bigeard is the new General Manager, Raphael Klausmann takes over the role of Team Manager. The new organizational quartet is completed by Rodrigo Oliveira, new Head Analyst at G2.

How well this newly formed team has already found each other and whether G2 Esports will be able to find its way back to its old strength at the beginning of the split will also become clear this weekend.