A tinge of nostalgia will flavor the kick-off of the
League of Legends EMEA Championship
(
LEC)
2026 Summer Split. Week 1 will feature
’s Roadtrip and, on July 25th, the unexpected return of the EU LCS thanks to the
League of Legends Classic Showmatch.
On Monday, the LEC has announced the players responsible for reminding European fans where they come from. The legendary players that forged the legacy during the dawn of EMEA will come back to the original Summoner’s Rift and prove why their teams were the original dynasties.
Legacy of it all
The players from Team Legacy mainly hail from the original rivalry in Europe, Fnatic and SK Gaming.
Their AD Carry needs no introduction. Martin “Rekkles" Larssen was the face of the EU LCS and Fnatic for years, and even reached the 2018 Worlds Finals with them. This showmatch will reunite KC with their starting botlaner from their 2022 EU Masters Spring title. A staple of the French scene, Bora “YellOwStaR" Kim played for SK Gaming as an ADC for several years. He then became Fnatic’s ADC until he roleswapped to support and created a respected partnership with Rekkles.
YellOwStar will be paired with a couple of his teammates from his SK days. Kevin “Kev1n" Rubiszewski and Alvar “Araneae" Martín Aleñar represented SK and EU during the 2012 World Championship, and then went on to play for Millenium during the 2014 EU LCS season. The final piece of the puzzle was a semifinalist from Worlds 2012 and the only player to never represent FNC or SK. Representing the always innovative Gambit Gaming/Moscow 5 team, midlaner Alexey “Alex Ich" Ichetovkin wraps up the team.
Dynasty
Team Dynasty decided to add another page to several historic rivalries in EU history. Henrik “Froggen" Hansen will have another duel against Alex Ich, bringing back memories from CLG.EU holding back M5 during the DreamHack Summer 2012 Group Stage. The Dane will be flanked by one of his former teammates, Patrick “Nyph" Funke. Both of them won the 2014 EU LCS Summer Playoffs with Alliance, one of the six organizations to ever win an EU LCS/LEC title. The German support will face his former SK teammates, Kev1n and Araneae.
The other rivalry fighting to extend their dominance is the former Fnatic top-jungle duo of Paul “
sOAZ" Boyer and Lauri “
Cyanide" Happonen. The French toplaner and
newly appointed positional coach for
will have the chance to beat SK Gaming at home. This top-jungle duo, together with Rekkles and YellOwStaR from Team Legacy, represented Fnatic at Worlds 2014.
The final piece of the puzzle is the explosive and always-confident Konstantinos-Napoleon “FORG1VEN" Tzortziou. He will play with a couple of former Origen teammates. The Greek AD Carry and sOAZ shared the stage with the Spanish organization during the 2016 EU LCS Spring Split, before joining H2K and finishing Top 4 during Worlds 2016. Afterwards, he and Froggen won the 2018 EU Masters Spring edition.
