What Is LoL's LPL: Standings, Schedule, Results

Explaining what is LoL LPL in simple words.

What is LPL

If you follow competitive League of Legends, it is not necessarily useful to remind you how strong China is nowadays. However, we will make a brief introduction to refresh the memory of people less passionate about this region. If we write that China seems to have the best teams, it is not because of our personal interpretation but because of the data given by the league.

Like almost all international leagues, the LPL LoL is subdivided into two annual seasons: one in spring and one in summer.

Championship points are essential during each season to earn a pass to the region finals that will decide which team will have access to the League of Legends Worlds Championship.

As the LOL LPL is considered one of the most important leagues in the world, it is normal that not only does it qualify more teams than the rest, but also that the distribution of championship points, necessary to enter the Worlds, is higher (as well as the cash prizes for the results during the league).

In total, four teams qualify, of which the winner of the Summer Split (the summer qualifier) goes directly to the main event of the Worlds each year, as mentioned above. On the other hand, the team that has accumulated the most championship points overall during the spring and summer qualifiers also secures a place in the main event.

The other two places, which do not go to the main event, are decided at the regional finals, which, as explained above, are decided at the regional finals.

LPL teams 2023

China's top league has 17 contenders for the title, making it the domestic competition with the most high-level participants in the world, confirming that being LPL champion is far from easy.

For the past few years there are two organizations that stand out above the rest. These two teams with Top Esports, champion of the summer regular phase and JD Gaming, champion of the playoffs of this same phase, two teams that, since 2019, have been present in 3 LPL finals.

The esports organization Ninjas in Pyjamas has announced that it has completed its merger with ESV5 ( Victory Five ). The completed deal means that the NIP Group has been officially established, and that the organization now considers itself to be the "first truly global esports organization."

Source: Leaguepedia

LPL Format

Since 2019, the LPL has followed the following format:

During the regular season, all 16 teams play in a single group in a single round robin format with best-of-three games.
The top eight teams advance to the playoffs o All games are best-of-five sets o The regular-season champion and runner-up teams start the semifinals (round 3)
The quarterfinals feature the third and fourth-place clubs from the regular season (round 2)
Round 1 begins with the fifth through eighth-place clubs from the regular season.

The winner 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.

Actual LPL standings

Despite having a difficult time in the group stage of Worlds 2022, Top Esports and JD Gaming both hope to dethrone the LCK in 2023 with the additions they have made. Top Esports is now ranked fourth in the world for Worlds 2022.

If we look at the squads of both teams, we can see that they are already superteams, notably JD Gaming, who has robbed Top Esports of its star in the middle and bolstered itself with one of the greatest ADCs in history.

Despite the fact that at the beginning of the season all power rankings were based on JD Gaming's complete dominance, we have not yet seen an uncontested dominance (due to an inconsistent early game in some series) from the team that relies heavily on the performances of their jungler Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok.

LPL 2023 Spring Standings

Surprise teams 2023: EDward Gaming and LNG Esports

On EDG's side we could see a quite chaotic offseason by the Chinese team with many changes and the expectations that people placed on them were not even close to those of other teams like JDG or TES. Tian "Meiko" Ye leads the team and the new additions of Hu "Ale" Jia-Le and Hu "Leave" Hong-Chao are making people talk due to the notorious performance that is reflected in the synergy of the team and its performance.

On the other hand LNG Esports has also undergone many changes with the promotion of Li "LP" Fei from the academy and the incorporation of mid laner Lee "Scout" Ye-chan whose synergy with jungler Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong is being seen in the summoner's rift.

With only a few weeks left to see who will definitely get the playoff spots and to see the crossings, the LPL table is getting tighter and tighter and promises to be once again a very disputed playoffs where there is no clear candidate to lift the cup.