The ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL) is the top-level professional league for ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'' in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The first season of the LPL was the 2013 Spring season. The top three finishers of the playoff tournament receive automatic bids to the ''League of Legends'' World Championship. Playoffs are an eight team single elimination with each step a best-of-five series. The total prize pool is ¥2,350,000. In 2014

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...

began providing an

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

broadcast. The format is modeled after the ''League of Legends'' Champions Korea format in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. In September 2015 it was announced that Riot Games was in negotiations with

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

to take over operations of the league. In 2019, Riot Games and Tencent created joint venture, TJ Sports, to focus on all ''League of Legends'' esports business in China, including tournament organizing, talent management, and venues.

Format

For the 2015 spring season the LPL adopted a best-of-two series. Teams compete in a double

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

. From 2017 to 2018, the league used the same format as the EU LCS for selecting regular season groups. The highest ranked teams from the previous split headed the groups with other teams being selected. Matches were also best-of-three. The LPL has used the following format since 2019: * Regular season: ** All 16 teams compete in one group ** Single round robin, all matches are best-of-three * Top eight teams advance to playoffs ** All matches are best-of-five *** First and second place teams from the regular season begin in the semifinals (round 3) *** Third and fourth place teams from the regular season begin in the quarterfinals (round 2) *** Fifth to eighth place teams from the regular season begin in the round 1. The winner of the spring split represents China at the

Mid-Season Invitational The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is an annual ''League of Legends'' tournament hosted by Riot Games since 2015. It is the second most important international ''League of Legends'' tournament aside from the World Championship. In 2015 and 2016, ...

. The winner of the summer split (seed 1), the team with the most championship points (seed 2), and the winner and runners-up of the regional qualifier (seeds 3 & 4) qualify for the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Current participants

Anyone's Legend Anyone's Legend (AL), previously known as Rogue Warriors (RW), is a Chinese professional ''League of Legends'' team competing in the LPL, the top-level league for the game in China. History ASUS ROG established the team under the name Rogue ...

Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming (BLG) is a professional esports organisation based in China. It was formed in December 2017, when Bilibili, Chinese video sharing website, acquired the I May ''League of Legends'' roster. The team expanded into ''Overwatch'' in ...

* Edward Gaming *

FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) is a Chinese professional esports organization owned by video game developer FunPlus. It has teams competing in ''League of Legends'', '' Valorant'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', '' Fortnite Battle Royale'' and ' ...

Invictus Gaming Invictus Gaming (IG, sometime stylized as iG, zh, s=iG电子竞技俱乐部, l=iG Esports Club) is a Chinese multi-game esports organization founded in 2011 by businessman Wang Sicong. They are primarily known for their ''Dota 2'', ''League of ...

JD Gaming JD Gaming (JDG), officially JDG Intel Esports Club, is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Beijing. It has two ''League of Legends'' teams: a main roster that competes in the ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL), the top-lev ...

LGD Gaming LGD Gaming is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Hangzhou. It is one of the oldest esports organizations in China and currently has players competing in ''Dota 2'', ''Honor of Kings'', ''League of Legends'', ''Overwatch'', and ' ...

LNG Esports LNG Esports is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Suzhou. It was known as Snake Esports from its creation in 2013 until its acquisition by sportswear company Li-Ning in 2019. LNG's main ''League of Legends'' team competes in t ...

* OMG * Rare Atom *

Royal Never Give Up Royal Never Give Up (RNG) is a Chinese esports organization whose '' League of Legends'' team competes in the League of Legends Pro League. It was established in May 2015. RNG won the 2016 LPL Spring Playoffs, 2018 LPL Spring Playoffs and 2018 ...

Team WE Team WE, formerly known as World Elite, is a Chinese esports organisation based in Xi'an. It is one of the oldest esports organisations in China. ''League of Legends'' Roster Tournament highlights * 2nd – Intel Extreme Mast ...

Top Esports Top Esports, previously known as Topsports Gaming, is a Chinese esports organization. Its ''League of Legends'' team competes in the ''League of Legends'' Pro League (LPL), the top-level league for the game in China. It was founded on 21 Decemb ...

TT Gaming ThunderTalk Gaming (commonly shortened to TT Gaming or TT) is a professional '' League of Legends'' team competing in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), the top level of professional ''League of Legends'' in China. It was founded on 25 Dec ...

* Ultra Prime *

Victory Five Victory Five was a Chinese professional esports organisation based in Shenzhen. It was owned by Mario Ho, head of Macau's esports association and son of the late Stanley Ho. It had teams competing in ''League of Legends'' and ''PlayerUnknown' ...

Weibo Gaming Weibo Gaming is a Chinese esports organization owned by the Weibo Corporation. Its ''League of Legends'' team competes in the LPL, the top-level league for the game in China. The organization was owned by e-commerce E-commerce (electronic ...

Results

Top four finishes by team

References

External links

Official website (Chinese)
{{Professional League of Legends competition 2013 establishments in China League of Legends competitions Recurring sporting events established in 2013 Sports competitions in Shanghai Sports leagues in China Tencent Esports competitions in China