Immediately after the Demacia Cup 2024 tournament, the LPL organizers conducted the draw for phase 1 of the LPL Split 1 tournament. With Rare Atom withdrawing from League of Legends, the tournament will only have 16 teams from 2025.

LPL Split 1 2025 will be the first season of the year for Chinese League of Legends. According to the announcement from LPL, the tournament officially started on January 12 with 16 teams participating, 1 team less than last season because Rare Atom will no longer participate in LPL from next season.

Detailed information about LPL Split 1 2025

After Anyone's Legend won 3-1 against Top Esports at Demacia Cup 2024, the LPL organizers conducted a group draw for the first phase of Split 1 in 2025. Group draw results: 

Table A: 

- Top Esports

- Anyone's Legend

- LGD Gaming

- Team WE

Table B: 

- Weibo Gaming

- JD Gaming 

- OMG

- Ultra Prime

Table C: 

- Bilibili Gaming 

- LNG Esports

- Thundertalk Gaming

- Edward Gaming

Table D: 

- Ninjas in Pajamas

- FunPlus Phoenix

- Invictus Gaming 

- Royal Never Give Up

LPL Split 1 2025 Groups

Teams will compete in a round robin with the top two teams in the group qualifying for the next round. However, the difference between the tournament and the previous season is related to the competition format. Accordingly, all matches right from the group stage will be determined by Bo5. 

In addition, teams also apply a new pick/ban format called "Hard Fearless Draft", in which champions will only be picked once by teams during that series. Choosing the side of the pairs in the first game is also decided by a 1v1 match between the two sides. 

In the Play-off round, the top 4 teams will compete from the upper bracket and the 4 second-place teams will play from the lower bracket. Teams will continue to compete in the winner's bracket - loser's bracket to find the tournament champion, and also the representative of the Chinese region to attend First Stand 2025, the new international tournament of League of Legends.