The LEC Season 2023 celebrated its absolute pinnacle with the finals weekend in Montpellier. EarlyGame was present alongside Kia and not only witnessed fantastic LoL action but also met with LoL content creator Sola and took a look at the brand-new Kia EV9!
The LEC Finals took place in 2023 at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier on the French Mediterranean coast. At the start of the final weekend, the venue for 2024 was also announced: The LEC is coming to EarlyGame's hometown of Munich!
- LoL Worlds 2023: Starting Date, Schedule, Teams & More
- LoL Dev Reveals Thought Process Behind Pro-Skewed Balance Changes Ahead Of Worlds 2023
LEC Finals 2023: Our Weekend Recap
This year we had the opportunity to be at the event together with Kia Germany. In addition to the games, we also met with the streamer and content creator Sola and took a closer look at the brand-new, fully electric Kia EV9 at the LEC XPO.
The electric flagship sets new standards when it comes to the interplay of luxury, performance, and everyday usability: elegant and comfortable, available as a six- or seven-seater and with over 500 kilometers range it's also incredibly practical!
In the finals, we saw some familiar faces again: G2 Esports, Europe's biggest hope at Worlds, made it to the final with ease, while MAD Lions and Fnatic fought for the remaining spot in the Lower Bracket Finals.
Then the time came: A true LEC classic awaited us in the final with G2 Esports against Fnatic – how could it have been any different!
LEC Finals: G2 Esports vs. Fnatic – The "El Classico" of the LEC?
Of course, G2 Esports entered this matchup as the big favorite, even though Fnatic seemed to be in stellar form in the first games of the Lower Bracket Finals. Sola saw things similarly during our meet-up: "After the first two games [FNC vs MAD], I thought it would be a tough nut for G2 today, but overall, G2 is the clear favorite here."
Before the final between G2 and Fnatic, we asked him for some predictions. While not all of them came true, the fans were still treated to a spectacle. We got to experience exciting picks, spectacular games, and an amazing crowd.
We will probably see a Xayah, we saw her yesterday too. Ezreal and Kai’Sa are also currently playable. All these champions that want to and can have a bit of a fist-fight and scale...
Unfortunately, Sola and the fans didn't get to see any too unconventional picks like Seraphine bot, but no one would have expected a Lissandra from G2's Support Mikyx in the second match. The audience in the Sud de France Arena certainly loved it!
After MAD Lions-ADC Carzzy's pentakill on Saturday, everyone was talking about Kalista. However, we didn't see her on the rift on Sunday, even though she would have fit G2 Esports' playstyle, Sola also says:
She fits very well into the style that the G2 Bot Lane plays. I can imagine her being left open in Game 1 and if she performs there, she won't make it through the rest of the series.
While Kalista didn't make another appearance, another crowd-favorite did manage to get into the line-up: Hans Sama started the decisive game with Draven, ensuring a formidable finish for G2 Esports in the last tournament game before the 2023 League of Legends World Championship.
The atmosphere during the finals was truly phenomenal. The French esports fans once again proved that they are among the best in Europe, if not the world. One question remains for us: Can Munich and the German esports fans convince Europe just as much next year?
_________________________________
*Verbrauchsangaben: Kia EV9 AWD GT-line (Stand 07/2023): Stromverbrauch kombiniert 22,8 kWh/100 km; CO2-Emission kombiniert 0 g/km; Reichweite gewichtet, max. 497 km
DAT-Leitfaden: Weitere Informationen zum offiziellen Kraftstoffverbrauch und zu den offiziellen spezifischen CO2-Emissionen neuer Personenkraftwagen können dem „Leitfaden über den Kraftstoffverbrauch, die CO2-Emissionen und den Stromverbrauch neuer Personenkraftwagen“ entnommen werden, der an allen Verkaufsstellen und bei der DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Straße 1, 73760 Ostfildern unentgeltlich erhältlich ist. Der Leitfaden ist auch im Internet unter www.dat.de verfügbar.