The new year is upon us and with it comes a fresh calendar filled with League of Legends esports events for fans to stream live and see the best of LoL players battle it out for top prizes in a selection of tournaments and leagues. One of the first League Legends 2020 leagues is the LoL Pro League (LPL) which is set to begin next week and will run over the next 10 weeks to get the year off to an epic start. This will be the 9th year that the Spring LPL league, China’s professional League of Legends league, will happen and it is set to be the most competitive yet.
The top-level of the domestic League of Legends competition in China kicks off again on the 14th of January 2019. Seventeen teams will be battling to get the spot for the playoffs. All of the LPL matches will be played in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Chengdu with teams multiple of the teams having their own home stadiums. Teams that do not have yet a home venue will use the Shanghai’s LPL Stadium (Hongqiao Worl IE Hub) by default.
From this week until April, 17 teams will be battling it out for a share of the prize pool that is valued at ¥ 3,500,000 CNY, which is the equivalent to roughly around $500300 USD. With such a serious amount on offer, the stakes are high and the quality of the participants is even higher. Let’s take a look at how the league will pan out.
How to Qualify for the Main Event
There was no need to officially qualify to compete in this LPL league, with the teams participating being chosen based on their reputation and their track record in the esports scene. The only pre-requisite to be eligible for the league was that, as this is China’s professional league, all teams had to be from China in order to be eligible. However, there are a handful of individual players who hail from outside China, with a selection of players from South Korea, Taiwan and other areas of Asia, but for the most part, the LPL is comprised of Chinese players and teams.
Tournament format
The LPL Spring 2020 consists of two stages, a group stage followed by a play-off stage. The group stage will function as a league in a single round-robin style, so that means all 17 teams will play against the other teams once each, with all these matches functioning as a Bo3 format. There will then be points accumulated if you win thus, helping you progress up the table, while losers will gain nothing. The higher you get up the table the better chances you have of proceeding on to the next play-off stage.
The way progress to the next round works is that the 8 teams with the best record will progress, while all the other teams who did not make the cut will see their season end on April 5th when the group stages are scheduled to finish. The stage of playoffs that your campaign will begin will be reflective of the spot you finish in the group stage. The top 2 teams will head straight into the semi-finals, while the 3rd and 4th teams will secure places in the Quarterfinals. For these teams, they will already have become eligible for prize money.
The remaining spots from 5-8th will then begin the playoffs in the first round. During the playoffs, it will be a single-elimination format. Instead of Bo3 though, the matches will now be Bo5. In this first round, a win will be the difference between leaving the competition with money or not, as those who win the first round will go onto the quarter-finals. When this happens, even in a worst-case scenario, you will finish in place 5th or 6th and ¥ 200,000 of the prize pool will be distributed.
Of course, winning here will move you on to the semi-finals. At this stage, all teams will win qualification to Rift Rivals 2020 – LCK vs LPL vs PCS vs VCS. Here we will also establish 3rd and 4th place finishers who will win ¥ 500,000 and ¥ 300,000 respectively. Those who win the semi-finals will go on to the finale. The winner of which will take home both ¥ 1,500,000 in winnings and will qualify for the Mid Season Invitational 2020. While second place will take home a still respectable ¥ 800,000.
List of Teams
The 17 teams will also be made up of 10 players (only 5 play a game), consisting of a Top, a Jungler, Middle, Bottom, and Support. The teams participating consist of the biggest known teams in the China esports scene and are as follows:
- Bilibili Gaming
- Dominus Esports
- EDward Gaming
- eStar Gaming
- FunPlus Phoenix
- Invictus Gaming
- JD Gaming
- LGD Gaming
- LNG Esports
- Oh My God
- Rogue Warriors
- Royal Never Give Up
- Suning Gaming
- Team WE
- Top Esports
- Vici Gaming
- Victory Five
Schedule list
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DUE TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE CORONAVIRUS ALL THE MATCHES HAVE BEEN RE-SCHEDULED. YOU CAN TAKE A LOOK TO ALL THE INFORMATION AT OUR UPDATED ARTICLE.
LPL spring split (all times PT)
WeekStreaming platform list
The event will broadcast worldwide in both English and Chinese. As is the usual case, streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch should be your first port of call for streaming the league. Of course, there will also be other specialist esports streaming sites that will be offering full coverage, as well as the option to watch it unfold at online sportsbooks that offer both streaming and esports on their service.
Streaming on esportsguide.com
One of the best sites for watching the game. The perfect guide for users that are new or already into esports. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
This LPL is a showcase of the best of what China has to offer in the field of esports and so as opposed to open tournaments, this is going to be a very hard event to call a winner on. This said, due to the nature of the selection for the league, the two of the best LoL teams, not only in China but the world, Invictus and current League of Legends 2019 World Champion, FunPlus Phoenix, are competing. These two are definitely going to be the ones to beat at this year’s LPL for sure and don’t be surprised to see them battle it out in the Grand Final. We won’t have to long to find out though, with the start of the LPL edging very close.
