Riot Games has confirmed that it will be shifting League of Legends’ esports broadcast schedule globally in 2023, with notable changes happening in the LEC and LCS.
Following some rumors that the LCS could be shifting to weekdays, Riot has confirmed that there will be some major scheduling changes going into 2023.
Rather than having all the LCS and LEC games for the week packed into a three-day period from Friday to Sunday, things are more spread out with their new schedule.
And though the LPL and LCK won’t be seeing sweeping changes like the major Western leagues, they’ve got a few changes worth noting as well.
League of Legends esports schedule changes for 2023 revealed
Riot has released a full statement about the changes they’re going to make, as well as the reasons for making them. But the big ones to pay attention to are the LEC and LCS.
2023 Esports Broadcast Update:https://t.co/CBpWCEa4Qr pic.twitter.com/IHHC60N20g
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) December 15, 2022
It’s been confirmed that the LCS will take place on Thursday and Friday starting at 12pm PT/3pm EST, while the LEC will take place on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with a start time of 6pm CET/12pm EST.
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The LEC will shed its two-day-a-week schedule in exchange for a new, three-day format in 2023, resulting in Western leagues having a five-day spread through the week.
The LCS could certainly use a change after getting panned for 2022’s low viewership. The new schedule gives European fans a much more feasible time window to watch North American games, but the timeslot could also make it harder for North American fans to watch games within their own region.
Meanwhile, the LPL will be moving its start time to 5pm CST (China Standard Time), 45 minutes earlier than last year. This equates to 4am EST and 10am CET. The LPL will still be played seven days a week.
The LCK isn’t changing its broadcast dates at all, but they’re reducing the duration of pauses between sets and moving the weekend start times ahead by two hours from 5pm KST to 3pm, meaning that weekend LCK matches will start at 10pm PST/1am EST.