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The 5 competitive League of Legends series you should watch this week

The LCS seasons begin with final rematches in North America and Europe, plus more action in China and Korea.

Riot Games

We're now two weeks into the Summer 2016 competitive League of Legends season, with domestic leagues around the world kicking off (if you want to catch up, head over here). Now this week the leagues in North America and Europe begin, with finals rematches starting play in both leagues.

That's right, we're treated to Team SoloMid vs. Counter Logic Gaming and G2 Esports vs. Origen to start off the Summer LCS Split. There's plenty of drama in NA's TSM vs. CLG, as two teams with history that stretches back years, but G2 vs. Origen has some extra fire of its own after G2 signed away Origen's star bottom lane.

All 20 LCS teams will be in action this weekend -- you can find the full schedule for NA here and EU here. North America will now be playing best-of-three series in the regular season, while Euroepe will be playing best-of-two series.

Here are the five competitive League series you should watch around the world this week.

LCK: ESC Ever vs. Jin Air Green Wings (best-of-three)

Tuesday, May 31, 7 a.m. Eastern, 8 p.m. local time

Watch: Twitch

A highly-decorated Challenger team that won multiple trophies in the spring, ESC Ever won promotion to the LCK and looked quite good in its first series of the split, sweeping CJ Entus.

Jin Air also had a good first week, sweeping Longzhu Gaming. At least going by current form, this is a step up in competition for both teams, both of whom hope to join Samsung Galaxy and the winner of KT Rolster vs. SK Telecom T1 as one of the few remaining undefeated teams in South Korea.

EU LCS: Origen vs. G2 (best-of-two)

Thursday, June 2, 11 a.m. Eastern, 17:00 local time

Watch: Twitch

Along with Fnatic and H2K, these two teams are expected to be powerhouses in Europe once again. And as we mentioned earlier, there are some extra stakes after G2 snagged Origen's bottom lane duo of Jesper "Zven" Svenningsen and Alfonso "Mithy" Aguirre Rodriguez, a pair of players who had been key to Origen's two straight runner-up finishes in the EU LCS and a semifinal appearance at Worlds.

Former G2 support Glenn "Hybrid" Doornenbal has replaced Mithy on Origen's roster, while legendary brash Greek AD Carry Konstantinos "FORG1VENGRE" Tzortziou replaced Zven. In the Spring Finals, G2 defeated Origen 3-1, advancing to MSI and floundering to a fifth-place finish in the six-team tournament.

NA LCS: Team SoloMid vs. Counter Logic Gaming (best-of-three)

Friday, June 3, 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. local time

Watch: Twitch

The NA LCS Summer Final between TSM and CLG in Las Vegas was one of the greatest League of Legends series we've ever seen. It went down to the wire in the series itself, going to five games, but also in many of the individual games, with close battles going back-and-forth and often decided on a final team fight.

CLG's roster remains intact after a shocking second-place finish at MSI, but TSM has had to make one change, after starting support Bora "YellowStar" Kim left the team to return to European side Fnatic. To replace him, TSM signed former Challenger Series support Vincent "Biofrost" Wang.

LCK: KT Rolster vs. SK Telecom T1 (best-of-three)

Saturday, June 4, 1 a.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. local time

Watch: Twitch

Any time you get to watch SK Telecom T1, especially after they take a week off, is a must-see occasion. When they're facing another top LCK team? Definitely make time for this one.

KT Rolster started its season with an exciting 2-0 sweep of MVP that included one of the wildest endings you'll see all year. While SKT has won just about everything in sight recently, this is an opportunity for the team to break one recent bad habit: slow starts, which plagued the team at the beginning of the Spring Season and at MSI.

NA LCS: Cloud9 vs. Immortals (best-of-three)

Saturday June 4, 3 p.m. Eastern, Noon local time

Watch: Twitch

Throughout the Spring Split in North America, one team stood head-and-shoulders above the rest: Immortals, who went 17-1 in the regular season, dropping just a single game to eventual champions Counter Logic Gaming. Immortals was surprisingly swept by TSM in its first series as a team, and now has a chance to redeem itself against a revamped Cloud9 roster.

C9 made one major move this offseason that had many dominoes, signing former world champion top laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong. Because of rules permitting a team to start no more than one foreign import, that means homegrown William "Meteos" Hartman will start over former NA LCS MVP Lee "Rush" Yoon-jae.  Spring signing Michael "Bunny FuFuu" Kurylo will also start at support over longtime team captain Hai "Hai" Lam.