LJL 2025 season and format announced

The “League of Legends Japan League presented by PLAYBRAIN” (also referred to as “LJL”) is pleased to announce the outline and rebranding of the Japanese domestic esports competition scene in 2025.

The LJL is a Japanese regional league belonging to the League of Legends (“LoL”) Esports ecosystem organised and managed by Riot Games, and will be hosted and managed by PLAYBRAIN as the organising partner from 2025.

LJL reborn with a new ecosystem

With the transformation of the global LoL Esports ecosystem in 2025, a new multi-regional Asia-Pacific League of Legends Championship Pacific (‘LCP’) has been created, and the LJL will be a Tier 2 national league in the Asia-Pacific region under the LCP. The LJL will be revamping its tournament format, transforming from a closed league format to an open and more accessible competition. This will greatly expand the opportunities for new talent and teams from more varied communities to compete in the league.

The new LJL welcomes new challengers from all generations, including not only the outstanding players who make up the domestic competitive scene now, but also those who aspire to become professional LoL Esports players and those who have competed in the LJL in the past. We would also like to invite the community that has made the LoL scene so exciting in recent times to take their first steps into the world of LoL Esports.

New LJL logo and slogan「REFORGE AS ONE」

The LJL will be debuting a new league structure in 2025, and to support that we are also updating the identity and logo of the LJL to represent that new structure and aspirations of the league.

The new ‘LJL’ logo is inspired by the game's iconic Nexus, while subtly echoing the previous logo’s kabuto (Japanese samurai helmet) and shield elements. The refreshed package is graphically strong and clear, and brings the LJL in alignment with other global League of Legends competitions around the world. The logo symbolises a confident step into the future of the LJL and the league's determination to reach greater heights with its fans, players and community, building on our legacy and history, while creating something new.

The slogan for 2025, ‘REFORGE AS ONE’, expresses the LJL's major shift in structure and approach. LJL has one of the richest histories in Japanese esports, and building on this legacy, the support of the LJL community, players and fans alike, we are able to REFORGE the league in a new structure designed to continue to grow as ONE. The new slogan echoes our desire to create a place where the management, players, fans and community can come together to build the league in its new shape.

From Splits to Tournaments and new competition formats

The LJL 2025 season will consist of three regular tournaments - LJL FORGE, LJL STORM and LJL IGNITE, replacing the previous Spring Split and Summer Splits. It will also introduce a new LJL FINALS TOURNAMENT where the top teams from the regular tournaments will compete to be crowned the LJL 2025 Champion.

Each tournament consists of an Open Qualifier, a Main Stage and a Knockout Stage. The competing teams earn championship points based on their ranking in each of the regular tournaments held from January to June. At the end of the three regular tournaments, the top six teams in the championship point standings will qualify for the LJL FINALS TOURNAMENT to be held in July and August. The LJL 2025 Champion team will then qualify for the League of Legends Championship Pacific (“LCP”, the APAC region’s top competition) promotion/relegation tournament.

The new competition format is expected to enhance the competitiveness between teams throughout the season, create more strategic battles and give fans a fresh and exciting new format to enjoy. Further information on the structure of each tournament will be made available at a later date.

The ‘Open Qualifiers’ will enable new teams to participate.

From the 2025 season, an ‘Open Qualifier’ system will be introduced at the start of each of the three tournaments, giving up to 64 teams the opportunity to compete in each LJL Tournament; provided they meet the entry requirements. The top performing teams in each Open Qualifier, will qualify for the Main Stage of each respective tournament.

The introduction of an open qualifying system will significantly expand the opportunities for new talent and a larger variety of teams from the national competitive scene to join the league.

Tournaments and schedule of events

‘LJL FORGE’ (mid-January to early March) ‘LJL STORM’ (mid-March to early May) ‘LJL IGNITE’ (mid-May to mid-June) ‘LJL FINALS TOURNAMENT’ (late July - late August)

The LJL 2025 Champion team qualifies for the LCP promotion/relegation tournament to be held later in the year.

LJL 2025 Call for entries for competing teams

With the LJL 2025 season’s open qualifying system, teams from the public are invited to apply to participate in the competition. The conditions for teams to participate and how to apply will be announced towards the end of November 2024.

For more information on the LJL, you can follow these channels :

Official LJL X (https://twitter.com/Official_LJL)

Official LoL Esports Japan X (https://twitter.com/lolesports_jp)

LJL Official Website (https://taiyoro.gg/ja/ljl) - Japanese Only

LoL Esports website (https://lolesports.com/news)