"Road trips are here to stay": LEC commissioner Artem Bykov on the 2027 plans
A few hours before the Nice lower bracket final, the LEC commissioner sat down with Ethan. Berlin studio, fines, LEC Versus, the LCK model, international results: an overview of a league that owns its choices.
Fourteen days on the road, and it's only the beginning
The year in numbers: five road trips, six live events counting Nice, fourteen days away from Berlin compared to four last year. The LEC has changed scale, and Artem Bykov makes no secret of it. Still, there is no ambition of doubling down in 2027; the commissioner acknowledges that, for now, only KC and Movistar KOI have the necessary experience, but hopes that more teams will give it a try.
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The medium-term goal is nonetheless clear:
The vision five more years for the LEC is that all LEC teams can produce this.
The message to the other eight teams has been sent, and for anyone fearing a step backwards, the answer: "road trips are here to stay." One lesson was learned, however, from MKOI's Madrid road trip, caught up in the uncertainties of the playoffs. Going forward, the priority will be to schedule these events during the regular season, so that all teams are guaranteed to be present.
Image Credit: LEC
The false start of the "online" LEC
This spring, players hinted, more or less deliberately, that the league would partly move online as early as 2027. Bykov sets the record straight from his very first sentence: "First of all, we're committed to staying in Riot Games arena in Berlin. That's the plan for next year."
The idea did indeed circulate internally, and the commissioner is candid about it. Faced with the two recurring requests from fans (more live events, more match days), Riot looked for budget room, and playing some matches remotely was one option. In the end, the league found its savings elsewhere: a second stage in the arena so that VCT and LEC can run in parallel, and a studio audience only on weekends.
The topic isn't buried for good, though: "We don't want to just play matches online. If we do it, it has to achieve something. It has to unlock something else for our fans. Currently it's not on the table." On the question of team sustainability, with teams who would welcome the chance to operate from Paris, Madrid or Malaga rather than Berlin, Bykov is more nuanced: it would suit some, but not all.
Fines: the league admits it has been finding its footing
The Jojopyun affair, the cross-sanctions between KC and MKOI after Madrid, then Nuc's warning this summer: the community pointed to an severity, and the commissioner doesn't dispute it. He describes a league caught out by its own growth: Franco-Spanish rivalries, creator-led teams, home events, all unprecedented situations that the global code of conduct had not anticipated. Madrid was the turning point: "So it made us pause and reconsider where our boundaries are."
The new, more flexible framework has been applied since the Summer Split. And on the substance, Bykov sides with the public: "I think it was fair from fans to call us out there. So we take this feedback to heart." Without abandoning the red line, a safe and inclusive environment for players and spectators alike, the league admits that trash talk is part of the show it sells.
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LEC Versus: mission accomplished, curtain down
One of the most-watched splits in the league's history, and yet no return in 2027. Bykov presents LEC Versus as a proof of concept, intended to pave the way for tier 2 competitions currently run by third-party organisers, such as the EWC qualifiers or the WSCI.
Asked about the role of Los Ratones' departure in this decision, the commissioner politely sidesteps; the league wants to refocus on its ten partners.
Three splits, and no touching them
The LCK model, a single season preceded by a cup, was studied but set aside for now, with solid arguments: fewer matches available in Europe, difficulty for a new audience to get hooked without the year's three narrative arcs, and above all the risk that a team at 0-9 would never get to start over from scratch. "I think for us in EMEA specifically the three split system is the way to go for now." The same format repeated in Spring and Summer, made possible by Berlin's second stage, has in fact proved satisfying: a single round robin in BO3, deemed ideal for road trips.
On the subject of teams that settle permanently at the bottom of the table, the tone hardens slightly: "I don't think anybody likes to have teams who consistently land at this 8th/9th results." Revenue sharing already penalises underperformance, and contractual agreements provide for support of struggling organisations. Nothing comparable, however, to the pressure placed on VCT partners.
Not being a flash in the pan
Then there's the stat that pleases: this year the LEC won more series against Asian teams than in the previous five years combined. Bykov sees it as the sum of small causes: the structural work of G2, KC and MKOI, the arrival of hungry talent, Busio, Jojo, Caliste and Skewmond first among them, and the multiplication of BO3s in front of packed venues, so many dress rehearsals for international pressure.
His conclusion sounds like a manifesto: "I don't want this to be a one year spike. I want LEC team coming to international events in the future years and everybody see them as contenders and not just as an underdogs."
The LEC experimented a lot in 2026, that admits its calibration errors without hang-ups, and that seems to have found its formula.
