HLE wins the Global Pioneer Championship. When will LPL return to its peak?

On March 17, the first League of Legends Global Pioneer Tournament came to an end in South Korea. The HLE team from the LCK region successfully won the championship, once again proving the dominance of the LCK in the international arena. However, the TES team from the LPL region failed to break through and stopped in the semifinals. This result also means that the LPL region still has not made a breakthrough in the new season.

TES was originally expected to win the first round of the LPL, and they won five games in the loser group , and finally advanced to the Global Pioneer Tournament. However, on the international stage, TES 's status is completely different from before. They only won one of the four group stage games, and the rest were shutouts. In the knockout stage, they lost 0:3 to HLE . In the end, they won 2 games and lost 9 games, creating the lowest winning rate record of LPL in international competitions. In the match between TES and HLE , the audience support rate on the live broadcast platform was only 17.3% , while HLE 's support rate was as high as 82.7% . This situation is extremely rare in international competitions of LPL teams, which shows that the audience is worried about the current competitiveness of the LPL region.

In recent years, LPL teams have gradually fallen into trouble in international competitions. Since 2022 , LPL has missed the global finals championship for three consecutive years, and lost in the mid-season championship in 2024. In this global pioneer game, TES not only failed to defeat the LCK team, but was also defeated by the Pacific Division KC team. This is the first time that LPL has lost to the Pacific Division team in an official international event, and the overall competitiveness of the division has been questioned.

Faced with challenges, the LPL region is trying to improve the viewing experience of the game through competition system reform. In 2025 , the LPL introduced the Fearless Draft mode, and teams in all regions need to adapt to this new rule. In addition, the competition system of the second and third stages will be adjusted to group teams according to their records in order to increase the competition between strong teams. However, whether the optimization of the competition system can truly improve the overall competitiveness of the LPL region remains to be seen.

More importantly, the impact of the version update has also become a key issue that LPL teams need to face. The game version of this Global Pioneer Tournament has strongly suppressed the line-swapping tactics, making the importance of laning ability increase again. In the face of this change, whether LPL teams can adapt in time and find more effective tactical play will directly affect the future performance of the region.

In 2025 , the League of Legends World Championship will be held in China again. This is not only an opportunity for the LPL region to prove itself again, but also a key node to rekindle the enthusiasm of the audience. Looking back at the 2017 and 2020 World Championships, China successfully hosted two events and created unforgettable classic moments such as the " Bird's Nest Dragon ". If the LPL team can win the championship at home, it will undoubtedly greatly boost the confidence of the region. However, from the current situation, LPL still needs to make great efforts to win the cup at home.