LPL Cut up 1 2026 unveils format adjustments and elevated Championship Factors

Riot Video games has revealed extra particulars surrounding China’s LPL Cut up 1, which is about to start on January fifteenth, 2026.

This yr, the LPL has up to date its Group Stage format, alongside introducing elevated Championship Factors rewards that may take impact when the competitors begins.

The LPL will see the return of the Group Stage for Cut up 1 with a couple of tweaks in comparison with the earlier season. Resulting from the truth that FunPlus Phoenix and RNG is not going to be competing within the LPL for 2026, the variety of groups has been diminished from 16 to 14.

Groups are divided into three classes based mostly on their 2025 LPL Cut up 3 efficiency. The highest six groups are positioned into Group Ascend, the center 4 groups begin in Group Perseverance, and the underside 4 will play in Group Nirvana.

Right here is the group distribution for LPL Cut up 1 2026’s Common Season:

Groups will play in a BO3 double-elimination format inside every group. Following the outcomes of the primary stage, the highest 4 groups from Group Ascend will transfer to the Knockout Stage.

In the meantime, the underside two compete in opposition to the 4 groups from Group Perseverance and the highest two from Group Nirvana within the Knights Rivals stage. Moreover, the 2 lowest-placed groups from Nirvana will go away the competitors.

Knights Rivals adopts a hybrid elimination format through a BO5 sequence, pitting two groups from Group Ascend in opposition to the highest two from Group Perseverance in Spherical One. The winners of Spherical One will transfer on to the Knockouts.

Moreover, the underside two from Perseverance will face off in opposition to the highest Nirvana performers in Spherical Two.

Knights Rivals concludes with the 2 losers of Spherical One and the 2 winners of Spherical Two competing in a last-ditch effort to qualify for the Knockout Stage.

The Knockout Stage will see the final surviving eight groups compete for a spot at First Stand. It can take the type of a double elimination format, the place the top-qualified groups from Group Ascend in the course of the Common Season can select who they’ll face first within the Higher Bracket Quarterfinals.

The highest two groups will safe a spot in First Stand, the primary cross-regional competitors of the 2026 League of Legends esports calendar. The occasion is scheduled to happen from March sixteenth to twenty second, 2026, in São Paulo, Brazil, as an offline event much like the 2025 version.

Riot Video games additionally revealed the schedule for the Common Season of LPL Cut up 1 2026, which can run from January 14th to February sixth, 2026. The following stage, Knights Rivals, will run shortly afterwards from February ninth to eleventh, 2026.

One of many greatest adjustments coming to LPL Cut up 1 this yr is the distribution of Championship Factors. Considerably extra factors are up for grabs for the top-performing groups, with first place incomes 80 factors versus final season’s 20.

This would be the level distribution following the outcomes of LPL Cut up 1 2026:

LPL Cut up 1 2026 may even utilise the Fearless Draft system, which prevents collaborating gamers from counting on the identical champion twice in a row throughout a sequence.