Riot Games made a noticeable update to the LEC Summer Split rulebook during the event itself. The amendment reinstates the Head-to-Head Game Score for use as a tiebreaker. LEC Commissioner Artem Bykov stated that the Head-to-Head Game Score was unintentionally left out from the tiebreaker criteria. “It is always meant to be a tiebreaker order,” commented Bykov.
Understanding the Head-to-Head Game Score
This tiebreaker is used to separate teams with the same number of wins and losses in the standings. With this new format for the 2025 LEC Summer Split, this will be important as it may determine which teams will move on In the first stage, the ten competing teams will get divided into two equal size groups.
Rulebook Guidelines on Tiebreakers
As stated in 7.5.13 of the rulebook, the new tiebreaker criteria shall be as follows.
- Head-to-Head Game Score.
- Winter and Spring Split Placements Combined
- Spring Placement.
- Strength of Victory (SoV) refers to the combined records of the defeated teams.
- Head-to-Head Victory Time.
- Overall Victory Time.
- Coinflip.
Teams which are tied at 5th position will play a tiebreaker match if necessary. If this criteria results in a tie, there will only be a two-way tie maximum. The losing team will be eliminated from the LEC and lose playoff eligibility.
Potential Implications of This Change
The standings are not currently affected by the revision as the group stage is incomplete but there are concerns in the community. Changing the rules in the middle of the game would be dubious. “It’s not very professional to change the rules halfway during the split and only two weeks till the end,” wrote a user.
In addition, the fans are worried about the competitive nature of the current Summer Split model. Internationally, the European teams have struggled. None of the European teams have finished in the top-eight of either of the last two World’s. Recently, the Mid-Season Invitational saw an early exit of MKO and G2 in the playoffs.
Upcoming Matches in the LEC Summer Split
This weekend will keep the LEC Summer Split going strong, with matches on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to kick off the third week of action!