LPL to Expand to 12 Teams in 2015
Gossip has pointed to the talent in LoL Secondary Pro League, the Challenger league in China, all spring split. This summer, World Elite Academy, the team that dominated LSPL, will enter the LoL Pro League alongside Young Glory. The rules were recently changed to an auto-qualification format, allowing the top two teams in LSPL to qualify for LPL without a promotion tournament. WE.A and YG took the bottom two spots from Energy Pacemaker Hong Kong and Positive Energy. They will have a chance to prove themselves on June 14th when LPL begins.
To increase the reward for strong performances in LSPL and to allow the bottom two LPL teams a chance at redemption, Tencent will expand the number of potential qualifying slots to six, increasing the overall size of the LPL tournament to 12 teams. At the end of 2014 LPL and LSPL Summer, the top two LSPL teams will qualify for LPL again, but there will be a promotion tournament involving bottom LPL Summer teams and more teams from LSPL to determine who gets the final four LPL places.
More changes to LSPL have been announced, including doubling the prize money for the number one LSPL team from ¥ 100,000 to ¥ 200,000 (approximately $16,000 to $32,000). This prize pool increase is created to further reward performance in LSPL and continue to support rising talent in China.
