GIANTXâs botlaner, Oh â
Noahâ Hyeon-taek, didnât mince words on Monday, venting his frustration over the
LEC's Summer Split format this year on social media: â
We wait 17 days to play one series, then need to wait 10 days to play another," he wrote, "
Only two series in 27 days is crazy shit, while LCK and LPL are playing 2 series a week xd.â For Noah, the LECâs current format just doesnât let the action breathe.
If GIANTX loses in their cross-play deciding match against Team BDS, they will have played only five series through the entire Summer split. Fnaticâs situation is even more striking: their last game was on August 17th, and their next will be on September 8th â a 21-day break in the middle of the season. Competition thrives on rhythm and momentum; these pauses don't just ruin viewer interest, they disrupt what makes the sport compelling.
A calendar that breaks itself
When Riot announced
the new three-split system, it was billed as an innovation, allowing more storylines, varied formats, better alignment with international play. In practice, however, each split has revealed cracks:
- Winter Split leaned on Bo1s to get through the calendar quickly, but Bo1s often feel shallow and unrepresentative of true team strength, especially at the beginning of the year;
- Spring Split returned to its classic format and introduced BO3 directly since the regular season, as well as two roadshows to reconnect with the audience â but with only six teams accessing the playoffs after only nine series played, many squads stopped playing quite early;
- Summer Split, with Worlds slots on the line, has been criticized for its long gaps, the schedule not being even for all teams, and an overall lack of games played to qualify;
Also, since the LEC shifted to three splits per year, the number of games per team has dropped, especially for those who donât make it past the regular season. For bottom-table squads, an entire split can be over in just a handful of series. AndrĂ© "Guilhoto" Guilhoto, GIANTX'x Head Coach, highlighted the number of games played by all leagues during the Summer Split. Although not all situations are comparable, this highlights that the different formats tested across all major leagues are also not equal from a competitive standpoint. In fact, European teams play fewer games during the Summer Split on average than in previous splits.
The LEC has tried to innovate, but in chasing novelty, it could have lost sight of consistency. Fans need predictable scheduling and players need steady competition. Perhaps most importantly, tthe league itself seems to need a format that builds storylines over time instead of tearing them apart. Noahâs frustration appears like a warning. Unless the LEC balances its calendar and ensures equal competitive opportunities, the league risks becoming less of a stage for Europeâs best and more of a stop-start sideshow to the global calendar.
