LEC reinstates ten-team winter split following Versus trial

LEC Versus, the winter tournament that brought second-division teams into the top European league for the first time in years, will not be back next season. Artem Bykov, the league's commissioner, confirmed the change in an interview with Sheep Esports at the LEC 2026 Summer Finals in Nice, France, on Sept. 19.

The decision means the LEC will go back to its familiar 10-team winter setup in 2027, ending the Versus experiment after just one edition.

No replacement route for ERL teams yet

Versus debuted in 2026 as a winter event that folded two Tier 2 EMEA Regional League squads into the field alongside the ten LEC partner organizations. It was the first time since 2019 that ERL teams got to test themselves against LEC opposition on the biggest regional stage.

Fans hoping for a similar pathway in 2027 will be disappointed. Bykov said no additional ERL route into the LEC is currently planned, noting instead that outside organizers are expected to build Tier 2 competition on their own. The most prominent example so far is the newly announced World Star Challengers Invitational, an international event for second-tier rosters.

How the one-off experiment went

The single edition of Versus delivered plenty of drama and strong numbers:

• Field: 10 LEC partner organizations plus Karmine Corp Blue and Los Ratones
• Format: 12-team single round-robin group stage, followed by a top-eight double-elimination playoff bracket
• Final: G2 Esports beat Karmine Corp 3-2 in the grand final
• Viewership: 734,933 peak viewers and 33.8 million hours watched, per Esports Charts

The tournament's breakout story was Los Ratones, the influencer-backed roster led by Marc "Caedrel" Lamont. Their run ended in a tiebreaker on the last day of the group stage, and the drop-off was noticeable: playoff peak viewership fell 33% to 397,000 after their elimination. Even so, only three events in LEC history have recorded more total watch time than Versus managed overall.

What happens next

Bykov said the priority for 2027 is polishing the core LEC calendar around the restored 10-team winter format. He stopped short of closing the door on Tier 2 integration forever, but confirmed nothing of the sort is on the table for next year.

In the meantime, Tier 2 talent has the World Star Challengers Invitational to aim for, which runs from Sept. 20 through Oct. 2 and features 16 teams from China, Korea, APAC, the Americas and EMEA.

Source: Esports Insider