League of Legends Championship Pacific

League of Legends Championship Pacific
Current season, competition or edition:
2026 LCP season
GameLeague of Legends
Founded29 September 2024 (2024-09-29)
First season2025 season
Organising body
No. of teams8 (regular season)
6 (playoffs)
VenuesLCP Arena (4F, No. 136, Minquan West Road, Datong District, Taipei)[1]
Most recent
champion		CTBC Flying Oyster (3rd title)
(Season Finals 2025)
Relegation to(Guest teams only)
International cupsFirst Stand Tournament
Mid-Season Invitational
World Championship
Related
competitions		CBLOL, LCK, LCS, LEC, LPL

The League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) is a professional esports league for League of Legends teams competing in the Asia-Pacific region.[a] Riot Games, the game's developer, and tournament organizer Carry International created the league on 29 September 2024. This followed an announcement in June by Riot in which they planned to form a single tournament to replace the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) and Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) as a tier-one league. Both leagues, alongside the League of Legends Japan League (LJL), which was integrated into the PCS for the 2024 season, became tier-two leagues.

The LCP utilizes a hybrid franchise and promotion and relegation model, similar to the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) in Riot's tactical shooter Valorant. Three teams are partners of the league and cannot be relegated, while another five are guest teams that can be relegated to the PCS, VCS, LJL or other sub-regional leagues based on their location.

The LCP is currently made up of three organizations each from Vietnam and Taiwan[b] and two organizations from Japan. With the exception of some touring events, all games of the LCP are played live at the LCP Arena in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition to a small studio audience, all games are streamed live on Twitch and YouTube.

History

Prior to the LCP

The first professional esports league for League of Legends players in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia was the Garena Premier League (GPL), which ran from 2012 to mid-2018 and ran by Garena, who distributed the game in those regions. Teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau were given their own league, the League of Legends Master Series (LMS), in late 2014.[2] Three years later, the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) was upgraded to a Tier 1 tournament and Vietnam became its own competitive region, separate from the rest of Southeast Asia.[3][4] The GPL was rebranded as the League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) in mid-2018.[5]

On 25 September 2019, Garena announced its intention to merge the LMS and LST into a single league. This was fully announced by Riot Games as the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) on 19 December for a 2020 start.[6][7][8][9] The league, whilst originally franchised to feature 10 teams, would shrink to 8 teams for Spring 2024 (following a relegation series demoting Impunity Esports and Dewish Team whilst the promoted teams, Nate9527 and PSG Talon Academy, did not secure sponsors in time) and 7 for Summer 2024 (when Beyond Gaming closed operations). The PCS would merge with Oceania's league, the League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO), in time for the 2023 season, giving the two best LCO teams spots in the PCS playoffs instead of the league qualifying for international tournaments on their own.[10]

Japan's professional esports league for League of Legends, the League of Legends Japan League (LJL), was formed in 2014. Throughout the course of the league's history, DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) dominated the competition, scoring 16 LJL titles and representing the region several times in international competition. On 26 November 2023, Riot announced that the league would become part of the PCS, much like Oceania, for the 2024 season.[11] During the season, DFM's dominance would be replaced by that of Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Gaming (owned by the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team of the same name), who won both LJL splits and finished as PCS runners-up in Spring and Summer, qualifying for the 2024 World Championship in the process.

Formation

On 11 June 2024, Riot Games released a blog post titled "LoL Esports: Building Towards a Brighter Future", in which they would overhaul the competitive scene for 2025. Among these changes were the announcement of an 8-team pan-Asia-Pacific tournament that would take the place of the PCS and VCS as a tier-1 league. This league was announced to feature a hybrid promotion and relegation system, with some teams being franchise partners of the league while others were guests that would be relegated.[12] On 19 July Riot publicly announced that the league would consist of four partners and four guest teams. The league would officially launch as the League of Legends Championship Pacific on 29 September,[13] with the format for the inaugural season announced on 1 November and the teams revealed on 3 November.

Despite being part of the larger Asia-Pacific region, it was announced on 20 September 2024 that the LCO had folded.[14] It would be replaced by the Oceania Promotion Qualifier (OPQ), which sends one team to have a shot at being promoted to the LCP.

Format

As of the 2026 season, the format is as follows:[15][16]

Split 1

The eight teams compete in a single best-of-three round-robin regular season. The top six teams advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage features a best-of-five hybrid-elimination bracket. The first round is single-elimination between the third to sixth seeds, with the winners advancing to a double-elimination bracket with the top two seeds. The winner qualifiers for the First Stand Tournament as the LCP's representative.

Split 2

The Split 2 format replicates the Split 1 format. The winner qualifies for the Mid-Season Invitational as the LCP's first seed. The team with the most championship points among non-qualifiers at the end of Split 2 also qualifies for MSI as the LCP's second seed.

Split 3

The eight teams compete in a Swiss-system tournament. Initial matches are best-of-three while qualification and elimination matches are best-of-five. The four teams to secure three wins advance to the playoffs, with additional seeding matches to be played to determine final seeding.

The playoffs features a best-of-five double-elimination bracket. The top two teams qualify for the World Championship as the LCP's top two seeds. The team with the most championship points among non-qualifiers at the end of Split 3 also qualifies for Worlds as the LCP's third seed. It is unknown which team receives the fourth seed should the LCP be given an additional Worlds slot via MSI.

Promotion Tournament

At the end of the season, the two guest teams with the least amount of championship points participate in the Promotion Tournament. Guest teams competing in Worlds are exempted from the Promotion Tournament.

  • The second-worst guest team competes for a Regional Merit slot, where the team plays against the winner from its original domestic league in a single best-of-five series.
  • The worst guest team competes for a Free-for-All slot, where the team plays against the winners from the remaining domestic leagues in a best-of-five single-elimination tournament.
  • Academy teams from a lower-tiered league (tier 2 or Wild Card) are ineligible to participate in either the Promotion Tournament or Wild Card Playoffs.

As the 2026 Promotion Tournament, the following domestic teams are eligible for promotion to LCP:

Wild Card Playoffs

Aside from the LCP component regions, teams from other domestic leagues are also eligible for promotion via the LCP Wild Card. As of the 2026 playoffs, the following domestic teams compete in the LCP Wild Card playoffs for a slot at the LCP Promotion Tournament:[17]

  • Indonesia: League of Legends Nusantara Cup (LNC) champion
  • Malaysia/Singapore: League of Legends Titans Cup (LTC) champion
  • Philippines: Liga Republika (LR) champion
  • South Asia: Legends Ascend South Asia (LASA) champion
  • Thailand: League of Legends Thailand Series (LTS) Summer champion

Teams

Eight teams make up the league. This consists of three partner teams that cannot be relegated and five guest slots that can be relegated to the domestic leagues below the LCP (currently consisting of the PCS, VCS, LJL and regional competitions in Southeast Asia) based on their location. For the league's inaugural season, there were four partner teams and four guest teams, with the guests consisting of two merit slots for the best non-partnered team in both the 2024 PCS and VCS Summer splits, as well as two additional teams.

Current teams

Team Joined
Partner teams
CTBC Flying Oyster 3 November 2024
GAM Esports[c] 18 August 2024
SoftBank Hawks[d] 3 November 2024
Guest teams
Deep Cross Gaming 3 October 2025
DetonatioN FocusMe[e] 3 November 2024
Ground Zero Gaming[f] 22 December 2025
Team Secret Whales[g] 3 November 2024
MVK Esports[h] 3 November 2024

Former teams

Team Joined Left Reason
Chiefs Esports Club 3 November 2024 3 October 2025 Relegated
PSG Talon[i] 1 September 2024 18 November 2025 Removed

Timeline

Results

Year Split Champions Runners-up Third-place
2025 Season Kickoff CTBC Flying Oyster Talon Esports MGN Vikings Esports
Mid-Season CTBC Flying Oyster GAM Esports Talon Esports
Season Finals CTBC Flying Oyster Team Secret Whales PSG Talon
2026 Split 1 Secret Whales Deep Cross Gaming SoftBank Hawks
Split 2
Split 3

Notes

  1. ^ Riot Games also uses the term "LCP region", which includes competitors from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
  2. ^ The LCP refers to Taiwan as "Taipei" in its official publications.
  3. ^ GAM Esports were guaranteed a guest spot in the LCP by winning the VCS Summer 2024 season, but were announced as a partnered team on 3 November 2024.
  4. ^ Their official name is Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Gaming, as they are owned by Japanese baseball club Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
  5. ^ DetonatioN FocusMe qualified via the PCS merit spot as the 5th place team in the 2024 Summer season; 1st place PSG Talon, 2nd place SoftBank Hawks and 4th place CTBC Flying Oyster were all selected as partnered teams, while 3rd place Frank Esports wasn't selected.
  6. ^ On 18 November 2025, Riot Games announced that PSG Talon would be removed from the LCP due to Talon's "financial issues", including failure to pay its staff members in a timely fashion.[18] Their replacement would be Ground Zero Gaming as a guest from the PCS region.
  7. ^ Team Whales were invited to the LCP as a guest team on 3 November 2024. On 6 December 2024, Team Secret announced that they had take a partnership with Team Whales, and competing with name as "Team Secret Whales".
  8. ^ MVK Esports (formerly MGN Vikings Esports) qualified via the VCS merit spot as the runners-up of the 2024 Summer season; GAM Esports, the winners of the season, were selected as a partnered team.
  9. ^ PSG Talon were guaranteed a guest spot in the LCP by winning the PCS Summer 2024 season, but were announced as a partnered team on 3 November 2024. On 5 January 2025, PSG Esports ended their partnership with Talon Esports, and Talon kept their partnership slot in the LCP. On 15 July 2025, the partnership was resumed.[19] However, Talon Esports was removed by Riot Games from both the LCP and the Valorant's VCT Pacific on 18 November 2025, due to their "financial issues", including failure to pay its staff members in a timely fashion; the partnership with PSG was also ended again.[18]

References

  1. ^ "《英雄聯盟》LCP 2025 Mid Season". Retrieved 4 April 2025.
  2. ^ Kulasingham, Nilu (1 October 2014). "Garena to separate Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau from South East Asia for the 2015 GPL Season". Yahoo News. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  3. ^ Wolf, Jacob (21 February 2018). "Vietnam promoted to independent region in League of Legends". ESPN. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  4. ^ Goslin, Austen (21 February 2018). "Vietnam is now its own independent competitive league". The Rift Herald. Archived from the original on 21 February 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  5. ^ "A New Beginning for Esports in Southeast Asia". LoL Garena. Archived from the original on 5 July 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  6. ^ "全新聯賽將於 2020 年啟動，聯合LMS及LST全面提高戰區戰力". 《英雄聯盟 LoL》官方網站 – 全球第一多人連線遊戲，挑戰你的電子競技夢想！ (in Chinese (Taiwan)). LoL Esports; Garena TW. 25 September 2019. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  7. ^ Hao, Dexter Tan Guan (19 December 2019). "Pacific Championship Series created as combination of League's LMS and LST". Dot Esports. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  8. ^ Nicholson, Jonno (19 December 2019). "Riot Games announces Pacific Championship Series". Esports Insider. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  9. ^ Matthiesen, Tom (20 December 2019). "League of Legends: Riot merges the LMS and the LST to form one large Pacific Championship Series in 2020". Inven Global. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  10. ^ Mclaughlin, Declan (18 November 2022). "Riot Games announces PCS will expand into Oceania". Dexerto. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  11. ^ Ho, Liam (27 November 2023). "LoL esports announces Japan's LJL will join Oceania in PCS playoffs for Worlds entry". Dexerto.
  12. ^ Wilson, Jason (11 June 2024). "Riot Games rolls out consolidation plan, new spring event for League of Legends esports". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  13. ^ "Introducing League of Legends Championship Pacific!". LoL Esports. 29 September 2024. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
  14. ^ Taifalos, Nicholas (20 September 2024). "Riot 'exploring solutions' for new LoL circuit in Oceania just 4 years after last revamp". Dot Esports. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  15. ^ Sayal, Rabia (5 January 2026). "LCP unveils full 2026 format ahead of Split 1". Esports Insider. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  16. ^ Chocat, Clément (5 November 2026). "LoL: LCP 2026 introduces Championship Points, full BO5 playoffs and 2v2 side selection". Sheep Esports. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  17. ^ Xu, Davide (20 August 2025). "LCP unveils 2025 Wild Card Playoffs schedule and format". Esports Insider. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  18. ^ a b Xu, Davide (18 November 2025). "TALON Esports removed from VCT Pacifc and LCP following financial difficulties". Esports Insider. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  19. ^ Nicholson, Jonno (15 July 2025). "PSG TALON returns to League of Legends following renewed dea". Esports Insider. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
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