Though fans anxiously anticipated the return of professional EMEA League of Legends with the start of the 2023 LEC Winter Split this past weekend, nearly every game played in week one experienced some sort of delay or pause. This made it so that five-hour game days turned into upwards of eight hours, not only making the viewing experience difficult but forcing players to endure longer hours than anticipated.
Artem Bykov, the commissioner of the LEC, explained on Twitter today that these delays are the result of an internal issue that “didn’t appear during the rehearsals.” He noted that the LEC will be working throughout the week to resolve these issues and provide a more permanent solution to the problem, rather than rely on the temporary solutions the team has resorted to.
While the LEC is expected to take place on Saturdays and Sundays—and Mondays if it is a super week—from 11am CT to 4pm CT, this first weekend’s games have added one-to-two or more hours to the schedule as fans and players sit through unexpected delays plaguing nearly every game. In that time, the analyst desk has provided content for fans to enjoy and broken down the various changes made to the LEC and its teams this split.
Team Vitality’s mid laner Perkz mentioned yesterday that the timing of the LEC, both with and without the delays, may impact the usage of the new EMEA Champions Queue, which is expected to debut tomorrow evening. While this weekend’s delays will likely not appear in the same quantity in the future, he noted concern regarding a week of late nights for pro players simply wanting to partake in the most competitive League they can.
The 2023 LEC Winter Split will continue next week as the winter playoffs quickly approach. While the LEC is working on the issues that caused this weekend’s delays, it is not clear if they will be fully amended before next weekend.
