LPL Split 2 2026: Format, teams, odds, and predictions

Naerlyn Published April 1, 2026

With Bilibili Gaming winning First Stand 2026, the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Split 2 is home to some of the highest competition in the world. Our LPL Split 2 preview includes everything you need to know about China’s League of Legends tournament, including its format, dates, teams, and odds.

The LPL Split 2 will air for over two months. Afterwards, the best two teams will play for China at the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) in South Korea.

In this article, find our predictions on which teams we think will do well at the event. Will BLG ride the momentum of their First Stand victory? Or will Anyone’s Legend reach the form they were meant to have?

LPL Split 2 2026

LPL Split 2 2026 overview

Format and Schedule

The LPL Split 2 will run for 11 weeks, over two stages.

Regular Season (April 4 – May 17)

• 14 teams participate, split into two groups. The eight best teams from Split 1 play in Group Ascend, the other six in Group Nirvana.
• Group Ascend teams will play a double round-robin within their group. Those in Nirvana will play a single round-robin (five total matches).
• All matches are best-of-three.
• All Ascend teams move to the next stage, joined by the top four from Nirvana. The bottom two Nirvana teams are eliminated from the LPL and will not play in Split 3.
• For the most part, the matches run Wednesday through Sunday, with two matches per day. Saturdays will occasionally have three matches.

Playoffs (May 21 – June 14)

Play-in

• The bottom four Ascend teams each face one of the top four Nirvana opponents. The four winners qualify to the bracket.
• All matches are best-of-five.

Bracket

• The four play-in teams join the top four Ascend teams. Those eight teams play in a double-elimination bracket.
• The top 2 teams qualify to MSI 2026. The winner also qualifies to EWC 2026.
• All matches are best-of-five.

LPL Split 2 Teams

The LPL Split 2 has the same 14 teams as Split 1 did. This time though, they’re separated into two new groups that will not play against one another until the playoffs. The 14 teams competing are:

Group Ascend

• Bilibili Gaming
• JD Gaming
• Weibo Gaming
• Anyone’s Legend
• Top Esports
• Invictus Gaming
• Team WE
• Ninjas in Pyjamas

Group Nirvana

• LNG Esports
• Oh My God
• EDward Gaming
• ThunderTalk Gaming
• LGD Gaming
• Ultra Prime

For more on these teams, read up on their rosters there.

LPL Preview: Will BLG win the Split 2 as well? Image Source: Bruno Alvares / Riot Games

Outright odds

Odds as of March 27 on GG.BET.

LPL Split 2 Prediction

Here are our predictions for the LPL Split 2. Now host to the champion of the latest international event, the LPL is an important tournament to watch. Split 1 had the tournament favorite Anyone’s Legend bomb out early.

In more recent news, Top Esports’ jungler was permabanned for match fixing during his last playoffs game. A couple of off weeks and some roster changes later, here’s what we can expect for Split 2.

Bilibili Gaming, the First Stand champion

BLG was expected to place second in the LPL behind Anyone’s Legend. Then at First Stand, they were a toss-up with the LCK’s first two, fighting for second or third place. Instead, they won the entire event (albeit while avoiding Gen.G).

BLG’s main weakness in the LPL has been their inferior teamfighting in a region where all teams are proficient in that domain.

In their recent form, this simply hasn’t mattered. Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin rules over the top lane, and the bot side hasn’t been slouching either. Just as well, Peng “Xun” Li-Xun led the Rift at First Stand.

Bilibili Gaming enters the LPL Split 2 as the favorite and the team to beat.

LPL Preview: Top Esports is a contender in our LPL Split 2 predictions. Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Anyone’s Legend, unrealized potential

Anyone’s Legend entered the LPL Split 1 as the team to beat. With confident macro, superior objective setups, AL was one of the cleanest teams at Worlds 2025. However, they fell to both JDG and WBG.

In the first split, they had a rough patch, then rose to glory again, then had their second downfall. Much of the same happened in 2025, when the team showed two entirely different faces from one month to the next. The strengths that made them stand toe to toe with a Worlds-form T1 are still there and are merely dormant. So it’s all a matter of when they will appear again.

AL will more likely than not end up a top 2 team, probably second place if BLG doesn’t lose their current form.

Top Esports, with new familiar faces

Top Esports had their split 1 story cut short by their jungler matc-fixing and intentionally losing them the match against Weibo Gaming. With him getting permabanned as a result, they’ve welcomed Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang back into the team. At the same time, Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo will start in the bot lane instead of Zi “JiaQi” Jia-Qi. The star ADC stepped down temporarily for health reasons.

Now with two World champions back on their roster, TES should go back to being the regional menace. Top Esports will challenge for top 2 as well.

Featured image source: Bruno Alvares / Riot Games