LPL Spring Playoffs 2020: Schedule, Format, Prize Pool, Teams, How-To Watch

The 2020 League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Spring Split Playoffs are here! Eight of China's best teams will fight for their share of almost $500,000 (Â¥ 3,500,000) in prize money in a series of 8 best-of-five matches.

The event starts on Wednesday, the 22nd of April. A total of 7 days of Chinese League of Legends action is coming your way between the 22nd and the 2nd May when the finals match takes place.

It's set to be one of the biggest League of Legends tournament of the year, so before it kicks off here is everything you need to know about the event!

Who is competing?

So far, we know six of the eight teams competing in the 2020 LPL Spring Split Playoffs. The favourites going into the event are the former and current world champions, Invictus Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix, by quite the margin. However, the team of Estar is looking to prove themselves this time around. While it is only Estar's debut season of the LPL, they are looking strong. So far, Estar is in contention for the 2nd or third-place spot in the league heading into the playoffs. 

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The other competing organizations include LPL veterans JD Gaming, Edward Gaming (EDG), and Top Esports.

The final two spots of the 2020 LPL Spring Split Playoffs are up for grabs by four teams currently, all of which are decided in the upcoming week leading up to the event. These teams are Royal Never Give Up, Oh My God, Team WE, and the Rogue Warriors. 

LPL Spring Playoffs 2020: Schedule

The 2020 LPL Spring Split Playoffs start one week from now, on Wednesday, the 22nd of April. From the 22nd to the 27th, one best-of-five series takes place.

The event begins with the lower-ranked teams, leading up to the highly-anticipated series between the top LPL teams later in the week. The semi-finals take place on the 26th and 27th of April. After the semi-finals take place, the teams go on a short break until the 29th for the third-place decider and the 2nd of May, which is when the actual event finals take place. 

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Due to the ongoing situation with the COVID-19 virus, all matches of the 2020 LPL Spring Split playoffs take place online. Each of the teams plays from their training facilities throughout China. 

Format

The format of the 2020 LPL Spring Split is unique compared to many of the other regions. The Playoffs bracket uses a double-gauntlet style format, with all matches played as best-of-five. Because of the double-gauntlet style, all games, except for the semi-finals, are single-elimination matches. 

Prize Pool

At this time, there is no announcement regarding the official breakdown of the 2020 LPL Spring Split Playoffs prize pool. However, we expect the prize structure to remain the same as in previous years. The last change to the prize distribution of the playoffs events was back in 2016. In addition to the monetary prize pool, the winner of the playoffs receives an invite to the 2020 MSI Main event later this year.

The prize pool is as follows:

1st: $229,500 + 60 Circuit Points + MSI Main Event invite.
2nd: $122,400 + 40 Circuit Points
3rd: $68,500 + 30 Circuit Points
4th: $41,100 + 20 Circuit Points
5th-6th: $27,400 + 10 Circuit Points

2020 LPL Spring Playoffs: How-To Watch

Riot Games has official streams for the 2020 LPL Spring Playoffs in English on both YouTube and Twitch.

Twitch (Engish)
YouTube (English)

The Twitch stream is embedded below.