New mechanic paves way for Filipinos' entry to League of Legends worlds

MANILA, Philippines — A path to the League of Legends World Championship for Filipinos has now opened after a latest update to the League of Legends Asia-Pacific tournament (LCP).

In the update ahead of the 2025 season, a Promotion and Relegation (P&R) mechanic has been introduced. The P&R tournament gives top domestic teams within the Asia-Pacific ecosystem a chance to enter the LCP.

Besides the already established domestic leagues like the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS), Pacific Championship Series (PCS) and League of Legends Japan League (LJL), the P&R tournament will also have a wild card slot for League of Legends teams from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

"This most recent LCP update should come as exciting news to the [Philippine League of Legends] community as the new P&R mechanic and wild card slot opens up a new opportunity for local teams to participate in the wider League of Legends Esports ecosystem,” Riot Games Philippines country manager Joel Guzman said in a statement emailed to Philstar.com.

League of Legends saw a resurgence in the country last year, as Riot Games took over publishing rights of the title for Southeast Asia. This resulted in the Empyrean Cup, the first local competition for League of Legends, which saw 256 slots filled up by players in a couple of days.

In 2024, Riot Games Philippines launched a bigger League of Legends tournament with Liga Republika, increasing the number of teams for the open qualifiers to 384 teams. The tournament concluded last October with West Point Esports Academy crowned as the new Philippine kings in League of Legends.

With the ever growing local community for the esports title as well as the update to the League of Legends Esports Ecosystem as a whole, Guzman sees this as the opportunity of possibly bridging Liga Republika to the world championships.

"We remain committed to improving the regional competitiveness of our Filipino players and are working on the next steps towards connecting Liga Republika to the LCP,” said Guzman.