League of Legends will resume professional play for the remainder of the 2020 LEC Spring Split. It will be fully online and completely removed from their usual studio setting.
Due to the ongoing situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, all League of Legends tournaments had been canceled while Riot Games continued to investigate various avenues to proceed with the LEC Spring Split and other regions in some fashion. We now have official confirmation that the LEC will be returning this Friday, March 20.
The #LEC Returns this Friday!Tl;dr:Due to the ongoing developments of the coronavirus pandemic we have decided to play the remainder of the 2020 LEC Spring Split 100% remotely online, with matches resuming Friday, March 20th.More info: https://t.co/Ewe5oZExfR pic.twitter.com/fZOcS2Zoid
— LEC (@LEC) March 17, 2020
What about competitive integrity?
This is something that crossed our minds at EarlyGame but Riot Games has you covered on this front, providing a statement on the matter:
"One of the main challenges of online play is how to preserve competitive integrity. To help with this, all teams will be competing from their facilities in Berlin, with the exception of Origen who will play from their training center in Copenhagen."
Keep in mind that this will not be the usual top-quality broadcasting that you're used to, so expect some hiccups within actual broadcast times in your respective zones.
The LEC and LCS respectively launched a statement on the current situation in addition to a much longer post that we will provide at the end, should you feel the need to understand and learn more about the steps Riot Games has taken to make sure League of Legends professional play can be resumed safely for both Riot Games staff and players alike:
"We are touched by the amount of support we continue to receive from our audience and fans. Like us, many of you are also staying at home for the next few weeks and the weekly LEC show provides something to look forward to. Although it will undeniably look and feel different than when it's produced out of the LEC Studio, we are confident we can remotely produce a show that maintains the essence of the LEC while reducing the risk to our staff and players."
We here at EarlyGame are extremely excited to see League of Legends esports back in some fashion and are looking forward to Friday more than ever, now.
You can find the full statement from Riot Games here.
