LCP Mid Season to utilise Spirit Blossom champions for 1v1 side selection

The League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) has announced changes to its 1v1 side selection matches ahead of the 2025 LCP Mid Season.

Going into the second split of the season, LCP teams will only be able to pick a champion from the Spirit Blossom skin line, in conjunction with the theme of Season 2 in the world of Ionia.

This means that teams will only be able to choose one of the following: Ahri, Aphelios, Cassiopeia, Darius, Evelynn, Kindred, Lillia, Master Yi, Riven, Sett, Soraka, Syndra, Teemo, Thresh, Tristana, Vayne, Yasuo, Yone and Yorick.

It’s worth noting that champions such as Ashe, Irelia and others, which are set to receive a Spirit Blossom skin for the new season, will not be considered in the champion pool.

With the implementation of the three-split structure and the extension of Fearless Draft across all major competitions, each competitive league has been looking to spice things up by tweaking its formats. Even though it’s not a decisive factor in competitive games most of the time, side selection can be beneficial for teams to gain edges in draft, considering the potential bans and pick order.

While having a traditional single round-robin, best-of-three in the regular season, the LCP is the only region aside from China’s League of Legends Professional League (LPL) to have 1v1 competitions to determine side selection in the current season.

The format was previously used in the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) last season, but it was utilised to decide side selection for the deciding game 3 in a best-of-three series.

Once the round robin ends, the top six teams in the LCP Mid Season regular split will qualify for playoffs, which will determine the two representatives at the upcoming Mid-Season Invitational, taking place in Vancouver, Canada, from the end of June.

The LCP has been getting a lot of recognition in the past weeks due to the strong performance of its representative, CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO), at the first international tournament of the season, First Stand, almost beating the runner-up team, Karmine Corp, in the elimination bracket.

The champions will be looking to defend the title when the league kicks off this weekend on April 19th. The matches will be broadcast in English on Twitch, as well as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai.