LEC vs. LCS: Who leads League of Legends’ oldest regional rivalry?

What the report says

Europe vs. North America has been one of the game’s defining regional rivalries since the inaugural League of Legends World Championship in 2011. It has survived years of trash talk, Rift Rivals, international upsets, and one-sided stomps.For much of the last 15 years, though, Europe had the stronger argument. The region produced deeper international runs, won major trophies, and generally looked like the clear third-best region behind Korea and China. However, that is becoming much harder to say now.North America is leading the recent head-to-head, while Europe continues to perform significantly better against the regions actually competing for international titles.

So who really has the upper hand in League’s oldest regional rivalry today?Methodology: This analysis counts individual games played at Worlds, MSI, and First Stand through MSI 2026, including play-on matches. Teams are classified by the league or conference through which they qualified, with LTA North teams grouped with North America and LYON counted as an LCS representative in 2026. Rift Rivals and other competitions outside Riot’s three global tournaments are excluded. Global Power Rankings (GPR) scores are accurate as of Sep. 1, 2026. Recent head-to-heads favor North AmericaSince First Stand 2025, LCS and LTA North teams have a 12–3 record against LEC teams at Riot’s international events.That’s four series wins for North America and one for Europe.

The sample remains relatively small, but the direction of travel is difficult to ignore.MSI 2026 was especially ugly for the LEC. Team Liquid swept Karmine Corp before LYON did the same to G2 Esports, leaving Europe with a 0–6 record against the LCS in a single tournament.If your definition of third-best is simply, ‘When LEC and LCS play each other, who wins?’, the answer right now is North America.But beating Europe isn’t the same as beating Korea and ChinaThis is where the argument completely flips.Across First Stand, MSI, and Worlds in 2025, as well as First Stand and MSI in 2026, the LEC, LCS, and LCP produced the following game records against LCK and LPL teams:Those numbers come from every matchup at the last five international tournaments.

Key details

The final column is particularly brutal for North America.Since the beginning of 2025, no LCS or LTA North team has won a single best-of-three or best-of-five series against an LCK or LPL team at an international event.Now, that’s not to say there haven’t been any good performances — there definitely have.For example, FlyQuest took Bilibili Gaming to five games at MSI 2025, while 100 Thieves even upset the Chinese titan in a best-of-one at Worlds. However, there have been no series wins, while the LEC has five and the LCP has two.G2 carries Europe’s record against the EastEurope’s advantage against Korea and China comes with one major caveat: most of it belongs to G2 Esports.MSI 2026 might be the perfect example of how strange the wider regional debate has become.

G2’s main-stage results were:This means G2 went 6–6 against Korea and China before being swept by LYON. By contrast, the LCS champions’ results against Eastern teams were:Team Liquid also lost 0–3 to T1 twice during the play-in stage. Put everything together, and MSI 2026 looked like this:North America destroyed Europe in the head-to-head, while the LEC was vastly more competitive against the tournament’s Korean and Chinese teams.However, G2 accounted for 16 of the LEC’s 21 game wins against LCK and LPL opposition across the five tournaments analyzed. It also produced four of Europe’s five series victories.

Without G2, the rest of the LEC went 5–15 against Korea and China and won only a single series.This does not necessarily erase Europe’s advantage. Still, it suggests the region has only one team capable of consistently challenging the East rather than significantly greater depth across the entire league. Keep Reading “It’s very sad for players and coaches”: Esports pros react to sudden Esports Nations Cup delay with further training, confusion, and a weddingHas Fearless Draft actually improved champion diversity in League of Legends?Who should be the next Hall of Legends inductee after Caps?Riot’s rankings still place Europe thirdRiot’s GPR offers another way to compare the regions.

More from the announcement

As of Sep. 1, the regional scores are:The GPR isn’t a traditional opinion-based power ranking. Riot’s Elo-based system combines individual team Elo and regional Elo using an 80/20 weighting.The current ranking has LYON fifth in the world with a Power Score of 1458, just ahead of G2 in sixth at 1444.