The League of Legends Pro League (LPL) is the top-level professional league for League of Legends in China. 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 ÃÂ¥2,350,000. In 2014 Riot Games began providing an English language broadcast. The format is modeled after the League of Legends Champions Korea format in South Korea. In September 2015 it was announced that Riot Games was in negotiations with Tencent 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.
With the exception of some touring events, LPL games are played in five venues in Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, and Beijing.
For the 2015 spring season the LPL adopted a best-of-two series. Teams compete in a double round robin.
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 from 2019 to 2021:
The LPL has used the following format from 2021:
The finalists of the spring split represents China at the Mid-Season Invitational. 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.
From 2025 onwards, instead of having two split per year, LPL reformed the season into three splits. The winner of Split 1 qualifies to First Stand 2025 while the winner and runner up qualifies to MSI 2025. For Worlds qualifications, they are determined as follows:
The following fifteen organizations compete in the league:
Teams in italics indicate teams that have been disbanded or no longer participates in the league.