Europe has handed out a rookie trophy in every season since the league rebranded in 2019. Eleven players have won it. The format behind the award has changed twice in that time, and the bar for winning it has moved with it — here is every winner, most recent first, and who is in line to become the twelfth.
How the LEC rookie award works
The award began as Rookie of the Split. Between 2019 and 2022 the LEC handed one out at the end of Spring and again at the end of Summer. The three-split calendar arrived in 2023, and the LEC switched to a single annual Rookie of the Year.
Riot tightened the criteria ahead of 2025 and kept them for 2026. A player must be active in the LEC at the time of the vote, must have competed in at least two of the season's three splits, and must have played at least half of each split's scheduled games. They can only appear in one rookie vote in their career, cannot have been eligible for one in another region, and must not have competed in more than four splits overall. Anyone debuting in Summer rolls over to the following year's ballot, since the vote closes as soon as Summer ends.
A panel of pro players, team staff, journalists, broadcast partners and on-air talent ranks the candidates, and the totals decide the winner.
Every LEC rookie winner, from the most recent
2025 — Caliste "Caliste" Henry-Hennebert, Karmine Corp
Caliste won an LEC title in his first split and became the youngest champion in the league's history doing it. Karmine Corp then reached the First Stand final. He closed the year with a 60.6% win rate, a 5.4 KDA, 9.8 CS per minute and 741 damage per minute.
