LoL Esports

The League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) is gearing up to redefine League of Legends (LoL) Esports in 2025, ushering in a new era for LoL competition across the Asia-Pacific region. Get ready to dive into the details as we give you an exclusive look at the format teams will battle through in the LCP, showcasing the path they must take to claim the crown.

Next year, the competition also heats up with the introduction of the promotion/relegation system as teams across the Asia-Pacific ecosystem will be offered a shot at climbing to the top and joining the ranks of the region’s best in the LCP.

TIER 1 FORMAT

The 2025 season will be divided across 3 splits - Season Kickoff, Mid Season and concluding with the Season Finals. Each split qualifies the best team(s) from each respective regional league into the international tournaments, while the Season Finals winner will become the inaugural LCP champion.

Season Kickoff

The season starts with the LCP Season Kickoff, where 8 teams compete in a Single Round-Robin Best-of-3 (BO3) format during the Regular Season. The top 6 teams will then advance to the Qualifying Series, where they will battle through a series of BO3 and Best-of-5 (BO5) matches to be the first LCP representative to qualify for the new international event.

Fearless Draft will be at play throughout the Season Kickoff. With the introduction of this draft format, teams cannot select champions picked in prior games in each best-of-series, presenting more variety in team compositions.

Mid Season

After the international event, teams return to regional competition as the LCP enters the Mid Season. During this split, teams are competing to be one of two representatives qualifying for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) from their regional leagues.

In the Regular Season of the Mid Season split, teams face off in a Double Round-Robin Best-of-1 (BO1) format to determine the top 6 teams moving on to the Qualifying Series. At this stage, teams compete in BO3 matchups for Rounds 1 and 2, followed by BO5 matches in the final rounds where the top 2 teams will secure their spot for MSI. Performance in Mid Season will also impact seeding in the next LCP split - the Season Finals.

Season Finals

Following MSI, the league resumes with the LCP Season Finals where teams will be seeded based on their performance during Mid Season. Winner of this split will be crowned the first ever LCP champion! Additionally, teams are also fighting to represent the LCP on the biggest stage with 3* qualification slots for Worlds at stake.

More detailed information on the format for Season Finals will be announced nearer to the start of the split.

*The winners and second best-performing region at MSI will each earn an additional slot for their regional leagues, bringing the total number of teams at Worlds to 17

PROMOTION AND RELEGATION TOURNAMENT

We’d like to introduce the mechanics of the LCP promotion and relegation (P&R) tournament that will reinforce our goals of enhancing competitiveness and fostering diverse representation:

Competitive merit will be at the forefront of our philosophy for Guest teams; lower placed Guest teams may have to defend their spot in the LCP through the P&R tournament.
The highest placed teams from domestic leagues within the Asia-Pacific ecosystem will be invited to participate in the LCP P&R tournament.
Future plans to extend invitations to teams beyond the existing domestic leagues, offering wider access to the LCP through a wild card slot. Participating regions for the wild card slot so far include Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, with opportunities open to other regions as well. More details will be shared soon.

At the end of the day, the promotion / relegation mechanic is designed to reward competitive strength and foster diversity in the Asia-Pacific ecosystem. Teams that perform well and place high in their domestic league will significantly improve their chances of qualifying for the P&R tournament, while Guest teams in the LCP are also incentivized to maintain their competitive prowess in order to retain their position in the league. Format for P&R will be shared in 2025.

Formats for Tier 2 domestic leagues in our Asia-Pacific ecosystem, including PCS, VCS, and LJL will be revealed by our partners in those regions, so stay tuned for their announcements.

We're also actively exploring solutions for a new OCE competitive circuit that will have a pathway into LCP next year. The details are still being finalized, and we look forward to sharing more information soon.