LEC Commissioner Artem Bykov has acknowledged that the league's late-split scheduling left some teams with badly uneven workloads — and confirmed changes are coming as soon as Summer. Speaking to Jankos on his stream, The LEC Commissioner admitted they had "underestimated the impact" of the tweaks made to accommodate this year's road trips, leaving Karmine Corp in particular crammed into a closing stretch that drew sharp criticism from fans.
The admission
"We're also not happy how it worked out," Artem Bykov told Jankos, pointing to small adjustments that snowballed into a lopsided final stretch. The Commissioner stopped short of detailing the exact fix, but confirmed two things — road trips will be spread more evenly across the Summer calendar, and Riot will rework match allocation to avoid extremes like a team playing two games one week and seven the next.
The road trip context
The scheduling issue is inseparable from the LEC's road trip programme, which Bykov was keen to defend. He stressed the initiative comes from the teams, not Riot.
The first step is for the LEC team to come to Riot and say, 'hey Riot, we want to run a show in this city'
He explained, calling the setup a "true co-production" where teams handle the on-site fan experience and Riot runs the broadcast and competitive operations.
That model also explains why only Karmine Corp and Movistar KOI have hosted full road trips so far — both already operate strong local ecosystems. Bykov wants more teams to step up next year: "I'm hoping that other teams are confident enough to commit to new locations."
A league running hot
Behind the scheduling problem sits a heavier calendar than ever — 78 show days this year, up from 66 last year. That workload helps explain Riot's reliance on Bo1 in formats like LEC Versus, even though Bykov was unambiguous about his preference.
We know that fans love best of threes, best of fives — these are the formats that prepare teams the best for international competitions.
The Bo1s, he confirmed, was a production constraint, not a sporting choice.
Artem Bykov also pushed back on the idea of moving the LEC fully online to free up calendar space. "We're not looking at online as something we would want to do for LEC permanently," he said — though he left the door open for online formats as a "supplement" if Riot wants to test new structures down the line.
There's also the ongoing co-streaming debate, reignited in April by a FlyQuest video questioning whether creator watch parties are sustaining or siphoning the official broadcast. Bykov stuck to a clear line — co-streaming, he said, is "a supplementary part" of the LEC strategy, with the main broadcast still the central product.
What to watch for Summer
Artem Bykov has publicly committed to a more balanced match distribution and better-spread road trips. Whether that's enough to reset the competitive integrity conversation will depend on execution.
