by League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) 2023 Summer kicks off on Saturday, June 17. Here you can find the best bets for the opening day of the split, covering MAD Lions vs Team Vitality, KOI vs Excel Esports, G2 Esports vs Team BDS, and Fnatic vs Astralis.
MAD LIONS vs TEAM VITALITY LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | MAD -120.48 at BetOnline | Vitality -120.48 at BetOnline |
| When: | June 17, 2023 | 18:00 CEST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
The reigning LEC 2023 Spring champions, MAD Lions, will clash with Europe’s juggernauts, Team Vitality, in the opening match of LEC 2023 Summer, which should be a close match. Vitality and MAD met three times last split, with Vitality winning the first two games (1-0, 2-0), but couldn’t do the same in the LEC 2023 Spring semifinal, when MAD Lions won 3-1.
Based on past results, MAD Lions and Team Vitality look evenly matched, and with neither team making any roster changes for the summer split, the balance of power should remain the same. However, if we had to pick a side, Team Vitality are a clear choice.
Even though Vitality were a massive disappointment last split, this is still a very stacked roster, which now had more than enough time to form the needed synergy. On the other hand, MAD Lions are the reigning champions, but they severely overperformed in spring and are overrated.
Early-season games can be volatile, but Team Vitality are qualitatively much better than MAD Lions.
Team Vitality to win
KOI vs EXCEL ESPORTS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | KOI -250 at BetOnline | Excel +175 at BetOnline |
| When: | June 17, 2023 | 20:00 CEST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
Excel Esports finished the first two splits of the season in 10th place and have combined just three wins (3-15). The lack of success led to a couple of roster changes, in the signing of a new jungler Lee “Peach” Min-gyu and the departure of mid laner Vincent “Vetheo” Berrié, who got replaced by Felix “Abbedagge” Braun.
These changes won’t strengthen Excel, but this team doesn’t need to sign star players to be competitive. Rather they need to work on synergy and macro play – which was the main reason for poor showings last split.
KOI also made some roster changes ahead of LEC 2023 Summer, but not good ones. Even though it’s understandable for a team to change up its roster following a seventh-place finish in spring, replacing support Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus with Henk “Advienne” Reijenga can’t work in their favour.
KOI look like a better team on paper, but they’re not good enough to be priced as -250 favourites with the top LoL betting sites. Excel Esports have yet to impress this season, but they have the talent and coaching staff to be competitive. This is a winnable match for the underdogs.
Excel Esports to win
G2 ESPORTS vs TEAM BDS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | G2 -250 at BetOnline | BDS +175 at BetOnline |
| When: | June 17, 2023 | 21:00 CEST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
G2 Esports had an abysmal ending to the LEC 2023 Spring when they crashed out of the playoffs with a (2-3) defeat against MAD Lions. But that loss doesn’t change the fact that G2 Esports were by far the best-performing team in the league, and they should be just as good in LEC 2023 Summer.
We could also give Team BDS the tag of one of the best teams in the LEC, considering they made the LEC 2023 Spring finals and lost by a single map (2-3). However, there’s no denying that Team BDS severely overperformed and took advantage of other teams’ struggles which made them look much better than they really are.
Team BDS still deserve all the praise for what they produced last split, but it is unlikely they’ll be even remotely as good in summer. Take G2 Esports to win with plenty to spare.
G2 Esports -7.5 kills
FNATIC vs ASTRALIS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Fnatic -120.48 at BetOnline | Astralis -120.48 at BetOnline |
| When: | June 17, 2023 | 22:00 CEST |
| Watch Live: | Lolesports, Twitch |
Fnatic couldn’t find any traction in the first two splits of the season, and despite all the roster changes, success was hard to come by. But with Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus as new support and ADC Oh “Noah” Hyeon-taek, this could be the split where Fnatic wake up.
We don’t have much information on Noah, but he has been praised as the future European ADC star, and he’s unquestionably an upgrade from Carl Martin Erik “Rekkles” Larsson. So at least on paper, Fnatic look much better ahead of LEC 2023 Summer.
Astralis finished LEC 2023 Spring regular season in second place. However, like Team BDS, Astralis overperformed but fell off much quicker and crashed out of LEC 2023 Spring Groups.
Based on the teams’ results from last split, Astralis should be the favourites, but talent-wise, Fnatic are far superior. There’s still a question of whether Fnatic will manage to hit the ground running early, but more times than not, they should defeat Astralis with relative ease.
