The League of Legends Pro League is considered the most competitive league in the world. With a total of 16 teams and squads that are always performing at international tournaments, the LPL is a must-watch for the most hardcore esports fans.
Just like in previous years, you will have guaranteed action every single match, especially with the new format that will be introduced this year. Here is what you need to know about the LPL in 2025.
Follow the LPL Spring Split 2025 on the following English LPL Twitch channel starting on March 22.
The LPL will be bringing a new format for the 2025 season to accommodate the new three-split structure. Each split will lead to an international tournament, with the best teams representing the LPL. The most important difference is the introduction of the Fearless draft mode across all splits.
In the LPL Split 2, the 16 teams are divided into 4 seeding pools based on their Split 1 performance. Four teams of four will then be created, with double round robin, Bo1 matches within the group. The top two will advance to Group Ascend, while 3rd place will go to the Last Chance Promotion Stage. The bottom team will move to Group Nirvana.
The last chance promotion srage will see two of the four teams go to Group Ascend and two move to Group Nirvana.
In the regular split, the 10 teams from Group Nirvana will compete for direct qualification to the playoffs (top 4 teams). The other six will play the play-ins alongside the top two from group Nirvana. The bottom two of the latter group will terminate their LPL season early, as they won’t take part in Split 3.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
If you didn’t catch up on the League Champions Korea, you can view our LCK Power Rankings right here and head out to make your own match predictions based on them.
Due to the presence of relegation tournaments, teams playing in the LPL had to make sure they could perform well enough to stay in the league. With the little amount of financial backing back in the days, as well as a more volatile esports scene, most teams struggled to keep their spot.
Nonetheless, there are some teams that have been playing since the creation of the LPL up until today. They might not be the strongest team in the League right now, but their reputation was what allowed them to remain in the competition. In particular, Invictus Gaming, Oh My God and Team WE have participated in the LPL from the very beginning.
Since 2013, new teams have joined the mix and some of them came with the right intention of dominating the LPL. Teams like Edward Gaming, LGD, RNG have all settled down and became fan-favorites in a flash.
During all the years, however, the Chinese League was not the best in the world. Despite sending the best teams at Worlds, China was never able to match the Koreans, back in the LCK Golden Age. This was until 2018, when suddendly, the trend reversed and the LPL became the dominant force in competitive League of Legends.
Uzi hoisting the MSI 2018 trophy starting the LPL era
The LPL became the first-ever league to utilize the franchising format. Back in 2018, the LPL had a total of 14 teams, divided into two different groups based on the team’s location. One was West Region and the other East region.
This particular format, however, only lasted one year. Starting from 2019, the LPL reunited all the teams and made them compete in one single group. This format will also be kept for the upcoming 2023 season, as the League of Legends Pro League will have a total of 17 teams playing.
With so many teams fighting for the top spot, we can expect LPL odds and LPL predictions to change very quickly, mostly on a weekly basis. As a result, momentum will also play a big part in such a competitive environment. To this end, we will update our power rankings in our News Section as each competitive week commences.
Now that we got the basics covered, here are several tips on LPL betting and our most proven strategies to maximize your returns. If you’re interested in other major leagues, you can check out both our LTA and LEC pages.
We mentioned how the LPL became a franchise starting from 2018. Before that, though, the Chinese Pro League was quite different from the rest.
First established in 2013, the LPL was a very small tournament, with only 8 teams participating. It was a very chaotic format, with multiple round robins each split. Every split, the top 6 would’ve stayed in the LPL, with the bottom two dropping out in favor of the two finalists from the Tencent Games Arena: essentially it was a qualifier.
From 2013 onwards, the LPL saw changes to its format every year. Matches became Best of two and a rankings system with points was used, one similar to the football. A win would grant 3 points while a draw would only give 1. This format was kept until the end of 2015, when the point system was eventually abandoned.
During the next season, the LPL started implementing a more universal system similar to the one it is used today. The 12 teams were divided into 2 groups. Teams had to play in a double round robin with teams in its own group, while a single round against teams from the other group. Matches became Bo3 and the top 4 from each group would qualify to playoffs. Nonetheless, the relegation format was still in place and the bottom tier teams saw themselves dropping out after a poor split.
The final format change came into place at the beginning of 2018, when TJ Esports announced that the LPL would become a franchise. Long gone the relegation tournaments, teams could stay in the League as long as they had bought their own spot. 2018 kept a hybrid format between the previous one and the new one, as teams were still split into two groups.
Starting from 2019, however, all the teams were reunited into one big league, with a total of 17 teams participating. Up until now, the LPL is the regional tournament to feature the highest number of teams playing.
It is almost a coincidence that the start of the franchise in the LPL also marked the first time an LPL team wins a World Championship.
During the whole 2018 season, Invictus Gaming dominated the League, only dropping one series throughout both splits. While everyone expected them to win the championship, they lost the most important series to Royal Never Give Up in the domestic finals.
At Worlds, IG looked like a very strong team, but they did not look like such a dominant force. That was until when they narrowly beat KT Rolster in Quarterfinals, eliminating the last Korean representative. During Semifinals and Finals, IG dominated EU’s G2 Esports and Fnatic, winning both series 3-0 and becoming the first ever LPL team to win a World championship.
With 2018’s victory, the LPL started its own Golden Era in League of Legends.
Fans expected IG to continue their run in the following year, but it was FunPlusPhoenix who took IG’s spot and became the representative for the League in that year. Winning both Spring and Summer Split, FPX also became the 2019 World Champions, beating IG in the semifinals and dominating G2 Esports in the finals.
China took their first back-to-back Worlds Championship, and fans were already expecting a third consecutive trophy. That, however, did not happen…
The 2020 season saw both FPX and IG fail to qualify for Worlds, raising questions on who could stop DAMWON Gaming, who was dominating domestically over in the LCK. Despite sending 4 teams and playing at home due to the whole Covid-19 situation, the LPL failed to repeat themselves, as Suning lost to DWG and didn’t have the potential to fight the Champions…
Plenty of roster changes were made during the 2020 off-season. Organizations went on the hunt for the next superstar rookie.
During the first part of 2021, Royal Never Give Up was unquestionably the best team in the world. After finding Uzi’s substitute GALA and sending Xiaohu to the top lane, RNG won both LPL Spring and the Mid-Season Invitational. They beat LCK’s DWG Kia in the final. It looked like LPL was back to business, and they were… but not with RNG.
At Worlds 2021, the LPL teams all got to the Groups Stage, but only two of them came out alive for the following stage. Both FPX and LNG were eliminated, to most people’s surprise. As a result, only RNG and EDG advanced, but the draws pulled a very bad prank on the LPL. The two Chinese ended up facing each other in quarterfinals, and EDG claimed the victory.
With only one Chinese team left against 3 LCK rosters in semis, it looked like it was over for the LPL. To everyone’s surprise, though, EDG came out on top, prevailing on both Gen.G and former World Champions DWG Kia in the finals.
After being in the LPL for more than 7 years, EDG stepped to the top of the world, beating all their previous World records, and crucially bringing the trophy back to China.
There was a lot of hype going into 2022, after EDG just brought the Worlds trophy back to the LPL. And that trend kept going at the 2022 MSI when Royal Never Give Up lifted their title back-to-back, becoming the only team in the world with 3 MSI trophies under their tally.
Unfortunately, however, Royal Never Give Up ended up losing top laner Bin after it was revealed that RNG and BLG had an agreement to trade the players during the mid-season. With that, RNG ended up losing gas and only qualified as the fourth seed, with JDG, Top Esports, and EDG being the other three seeds (from first to third, respectively).
Image Credits | Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
Despite having formidable rosters, things weren’t clicking for the LPL, as they struggled to play against the Korean teams. Top Esports ended up being eliminated in their group, reliving a similar defeat to FPX’s the previous year.
Even though three teams remained, two of them ended up failing to qualify in the top four: RNG dropped to finalists T1 in a one-sided 3-0 series, while EDward Gaming dropped unexpectedly against DRX, who ended up winning the World Championship.
JDG was the only team to qualify for the next round, but they also fell at the hands of T1, ending the LPL presence at Worlds. While most teams were able to make it into the top 8, no Chinese representative was in the finals, bringing the end to what can be considered a disappointing year, especially compared to the previous years…
It took less than half a year to convince that the LPL is still strong and that Worlds 2023 was probably just a fluke. Despite the salary caps affecting the teams, many organizations were still able to field top-tier rosters with JDG, LNG, and EDG finishing in the top three of the regular split.
But the two big surprises of this 2023 season are definitely OMG and BLG. Despite not having what were considered the top-tier players, both were able to perform well above expectations. In particular, BLG made it to the finals and locked a spot for MSI.
Image Credits | Christian Betancourt/Riot Games
At the first international tournament, the LPL proved why this might be their year. From start to finish, JDG looked like the team to beat and they met the expectations by winning the trophy. But aside from the victory, what was important for the region was seeing BLG taking down the two Korean teams, establishing once again the LPL dominance that was lost towards the end of 2022.
That said, the dominance came short when T1 eliminated three of the four LPL teams at the 2023 World Championship in South Korea. Despite all the four Chinese teams qualifying in the top eight, they weren’t able to take down the team led by Faker. JDG did its best by taking one game against T1 in a close series, but their journey came to an end in the semifinals. Weibo Gaming, instead, succumbed in a one-sided match in the final.
While the LPL didn’t win any international tournament during the season, the Chinese League actually got much closer to the Worlds title than it did the year before. Not only did four teams qualify in the top 8, but BLG pushed T1 to an incredible five-game series before surrendering.
This all while the league underwent major struggles due to the financial situation many teams have faced, forcing the LPL to implement stronger salary caps. The end result has been bittersweet, but with Worlds returning to China in 2025, this might be the right year to get the revenge and bring the title home which has been missing since 2021. Will the LPL make it? There’s only one way to find out…
Despite winning MSI, there’s now one big question left: is the LPL back to being the best region in the world? Or will Korea make a comeback?
Last year China dominated MSI but then dropped the ball heavily: will we see a repeat of 2022? Only time will tell…
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