LoL EMEA Masters and ERL format changes in 2025

League of Legends EMEA Masters and Europes ERLs will be revamped for 2025. The structural changes have already been announced and now it’s the turn of the format to receive an update that will redefine its shape.

After announcing an update to the licence agreements within the ERLs, Riot Games will now be revisiting the format of its Tier 2 leagues in the EMEA region. These leagues will now be better aligned with the Tier 1 system already announced for the LEC. Two major changes have been made: the addition of a third split and the arrival of Fearless Draft.

A long-overdue Winter Split

Since 2023, the LEC has been played over three splits, with the addition of the Winter Split. Europe’s ERLs did not go along with this new feature, and kept the classic format that everyone is familiar with, consisting solely of the Spring and Summer until now. From now on, all the Tier 2 leagues in the region will have to go along with a Winter Split.

In addition, there will be a “season finale” event to round off each national league’s competitive year. While information on the Summer Split is not yet available, the season finale will be a stand-alone event for each ERL, which will be managed by the respective ERL’s tournament organizer. We can expect a format that is fairly similar to the LEC Season Finals – although the latter has been abolished for 2025.

Riot Games intends to ease up on the ERLs and each league will now enjoy greater flexibility and freedom when it comes to the formats they adopt for each of their splits. There may therefore be huge differences from one league to another. However, the publisher will still have control over the EMEA Masters (EM) – which will always follow each Tier 2 split and will now be held three times a year – bringing together the best teams from each national league.

While a number of formats were tried out in 2024 to make the competition more attractive – in particular with the innovative Summer format which brought together no fewer than sixty teams – this year we can again expect varying degrees of structure, rhythm and length from one EM to the next. It seems to me that Riot Games is still looking for the magic formula, the format that will make everyone happy, if it exists.

Still, the first EMEA Masters of the year will most likely take place in a small group, with only 6 days of competition. In comparison, Spring EM will be held over a period three times longer – of 18 days.

Fearless Draft and Schedule

Another of Riot’s clear objectives for 2025 lies in its new game mode: Fearless Draft. The publisher is making no secret that they want to see Fearless Draft everywhere, right from the Winter Split in most regions. In fact, the new international event “First Stand” will be placed under this banner, and Tier 2 is no exception.

In my opinion, this is a very good initiative, as they needed to find an effective way of making metas less annoying and overwhelming in the competitive ecosystem. Meta governed everything and left no room for diversity or for the extent of a player’s champion pool. This game mode will be introduced in all ERLs – just like in LEC – starting with the Winter Split.

As for the schedule, the region will be pulling out all the stops for its national leagues, with a much denser and more intense competitive year than ever before. Although the full details of the Summer Split are not yet available, we do know that if the EMEA Masters Winter finalists make it through to the EM Spring final, they will have no real break between January 13 and June 21 – taking into account the potential practice sessions between each competition.

Last year, the EMEA Masters Spring finalists completed their first split on 28 April and resumed on 22 May. According to Riot’s schedule for 2025, the longest break until the end of Spring would be between Winter Split and EM Winter – from 9 to 17 March – but the qualified teams will no doubt want to train by then, so there will be very little rest. Tier 2 fans, fasten your seatbelts, this competitive year promises to be a busy one.

Full Schedule:

• ERL Winter Split: January 13 – March 9
  
• EMEA Masters Winter: March 17 – March 23
• ERL Spring Split: March 24 – May 30
• EMEA Masters Spring: June 3 – June 21