When does the LCS and LEC begin? Week one schedule includes insane matchups

The full schedules for the 2019 Spring Splits of the LCS and the LEC have been announced.

Both leagues have dropped the “NA” or “EU” from their respective titles, with the former European LCS rebranding to the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) to distinguish between the two.

The LEC will be the first to kick off, debuting on January 18 with an opening match between 2018 Summer champions Fnatic and newcomers SK Gaming, a classic match-up in a broader esports context.

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The real grudge match in the LEC is of course between Fnatic and G2 Esports, a historic rivalry made only fiercer by the move of Fnatic’s star mid-laner Rasmus ‘Caps’ Winther to G2 for this season. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait until the final match of February 9 to see the two teams clash.

LEC week one schedule:

Friday, January 18

Saturday, January 19

Fans of the LCS will have to wait an extra week, as North America’s best won’t return to the rift until January 26.

As is tradition, the LCS will kick off with a rematch of the previous split’s grand final. In this case that makes for a particularly exciting opener, as the Cloud9 versus Team Liquid match will see the former face off against their former star mid-laner Nicolaj ‘Jensen’ Jensen, who moved to Team Liquid at the end of 2018.

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The opener will be followed up with what should be another fascinating match, as TSM take on 100 Thieves. The once-dominant TSM had their weakest season to date in 2018, while 100T made an impressive debut and this season will be fielding two-time World Champion Bae ‘Bang’ Jun-sik, who is making his LCS debut.

LCS week one schedule:

Saturday, January 26

Sunday, January 27

The full schedule for both leagues can be found on LoLEsports.