LEC 2024 Winter Tierlist After Week 1 – After a Surprising Weekend, a New Champion Rises

Last week had some insane surprises, which completely rearranged the LEC 2024 Winter Tierlist.

The 2024 LEC officially started last Saturday, with the 10 best teams entering the new Riot Games Arena in Berlin, but only one remained standing without a loss. Before Week 1, we did a tierlist of the 10 teams, and it’s not an exaggeration that most of the teams didn’t finish the first round where they should’ve according to previous analyses and performances. However, that’s the best part of the LEC – you never know what to expect, which means that the excitement is guaranteed! Let’s take a look at how the rankings have changed compared to the Week 0 Tierlist.

LEC 2024 Winter Tierlist After Week 1

Karmine Corp (-5)

The biggest drop in the tierlist compared to Week 0, it pains me to put KC this low. However, they did finish the first round of the Regular Season with an 0-3 standing, even though they had some highlights. Their early game is solid, with Bo, SAKEN and Upset all being capable of securing leads on different champions. However, when the midgame rolls around, Karmine Corp falls apart – they literally never fought 5v5 last weekend. Cabochard has also been a bit underwhelming, while Targamas’ performance could be described as “whelming”. Still Karmine Corp has it in them, I just know it – but they have to start functioning as a team instead of 5 SoloQ players.

Team Vitality (-5)

Falling almost as hard as Karmine Corp is Team Vitality, who are ahead of their compatriots only because of Photon and Vetheo. Vitality’s toplaner and midlaner had great performances on Day 2 and Day 3 respectively, but they still couldn’t carry their teammates. Carzzy and Hylissang was the “0-20” part of the “This duo will either go 20-0 or 0-20 every game” narrative of 2023, which translated to 2024 as well. While Daglas wasn’t terrible, he did single-handedly win GIANTX the first match on Saturday alongside his botlane, after gifting a few kills to Patrik’s Draven. While Karmine Corp has it in them to rise from even lower than Vitality, I fear for the latter’s safety in the Winter Season.

Rogue (0)

Rogue stayed in 8th place – and has G2 Esports to thank for. The re-rebranded squad had one of the worst starts in LEC history, doing virtually nothing on both Saturday and Sunday. Szygenda was lacklustre, with Larssen and Comp looking washed. The two best parts of Rogue was Markoon and Zoelys, and they didn’t look that hot either.

On Monday however, they managed to find their footing against G2 Esports, who made tons of mistakes in every part of the game – mostly due to Caps misplaying or mispositioning. Rogue managed to punish them hard, but they were still the same team as they’ve been for years – if they don’t change up their playstyle, they might never move up.

GIANTX (0)

GIANTX did what we expected them to do, except that nobody knew Patrik would be such a monster in Week 1. He carried his teammates on Day 1 against Team Vitality, and had a great Kalista game versus Team BDS. The rest of GIANTX didn’t find their footing yet, especially IgNar and Peach, but Jackies has looked better than anticipated – hopefully he can play more champions than Neeko, as his Azir was not impressive.

Team Heretics (-3)

This is where making the tierlist gets really hard. Team Heretics are the weakest of the 2-1 teams simply because of the steamroll they received on the first day vs MAD Lions KOI. The squad of 4 ex-G2 players and Kaiser are still working out the details, as even though they beat Rogue and GIANTX, they had some shaky plays and needed their opponents to make mistakes to get going. They also had a fairly easy Week 1, so we’ll see how they fare against the top teams.

MAD Lions KOI (+5)

One of the biggest jumps compared to last week, MAD Lions KOI have hit the ground running. Having one of the fastest games in the weekend on Day 1 against Team Heretics, they showed how dominant they can be when their opponents let them run rampant. While they couldn’t manage to beat SK Gaming, they did win versus Karmine Corp, so the 4 rookies are working so far, but I wonder how long can hyper aggressive playstyle can carry them.

Fnatic (-2)

While Fnatic dropped a bit compared to last week, they still had a pretty good round. They were the first team to defeat Karmine Corp, but it took them almost 40 minutes, and while they steamrolled Team Vitality, SK Gaming demolished them. Nevertheless, Oscarinin had a perfect KDA up until Monday, and the Noah – Jun botlane is working. Fnatic just need to pay more attention to their drafts so that the Renekton vs Irrelevant’s Jax doesn’t happen again, and they are well on their way to Playoffs.

Team BDS (+2)

While Team BDS lost their first match against G2 Esports, they still had an okay early game, even though they were made to play in a fashion that didn’t suit them. Once Adam got Garen, it was over for GIANTX, but Sheo’s Graves will also be something that I hope we see down the line. They showed a completely different side on Monday, with nuc and Ice carrying this time around. Team BDS is promising with some great players, and so far, Ice was worth the pickup.

G2 Esports (-1)

The Kings of Europe have been knocked down a peg, and they don’t have anyone to blame but themselves. G2 Esports started out incredibly strong, defeating BDS and KC with ease, while also making the most of the new season with AD LeBlanc, tons of Voidgrubs and masterful macro play. Against Rogue, all went to hell when Caps basically inted 2 times in a row, giving Rogue the edge to overcome them. It didn’t help that everyone was off outside of Hans sama, who just couldn’t shoulder the burden of the whole G2 squad feeding. They are still the best team in Europe in the grand scheme if things, but sometimes they overdo the “funny” plays.

SK Gaming (+8)

The only team to go 3-0 in the first week of the LEC Winter Season, SK Gaming have surprised everyone – and jumped to the top of the ESTNN LEC Winter Tierlist. Nobody thought that 3/5th of the squad that finished 6th in the 2023 Season Finals, a rookie jungler and Nisqy would be this good, but they are. The veteran midlaner coordinates his team while keeping their egos in check, Exakick and Doss are on the same wavelength having the best teamwork out of all botlanes, while Irrelevant is slowly becoming one of the best toplaners in the league. Their only newbie, Isma had a great debut, and according to the French player, the best is yet to come – he feels that last week he was only “okay”, even though he went 3-0 with his team. SK hit the ground running, but can their momentum keep up until the Winter Finals?

The 2024 LEC Winter Season Week 2 starts tomorrow at 5:00PM CET. Can KC and Vitality come back? Is SK truly a contender? Which teams will rise, and which will fall? Don’t forget to check out the action and to check back next week for the updated tierlist!

Bence “Atreus” Loksa is a freelance journalist and League of Legends shoutcaster, covering all things esports and gaming, also yelling loudly at big plays happening on the Summoner’s Rift. While his main focus is Riot Games’ hit MOBA, he also dabbles in Call of Duty, VALORANT, and as of recent, the tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000 – where he looks to make some grudges with his Leagues of Votann army.