The Demacia Cup 2025 just concluded, with Invictus Gaming claiming the first trophy of 2026. China’s offseason League of Legends tournament made the 16 best Chinese teams face off in a brand new match format. The Demacia Cup started on the 15th of December 2025, and IG claimed the trophy in Xi’an yesterday.
The Demacia Cup ran from the 15th of December 2025 to the 3rd of January 2026 and included 14 LPL teams competing (with FunPlus Phoenix and Royal Never Give Up being out). To these 14 teams were also added two streamer teams, both failing to win a game.
This tournament allowed teams to give their new roster a first bit of stage experience, and it ran on a different meta than the World Championship. On the other hand, some organizations used this opportunity to give their academy roster more practice, or had to play with one or several substitutes as their starters were on vacation.
Between these factors, the tournament results aren’t the ones we would expect and competitiveness wasn’t at its highest. Anyone’s Legend and Top Esports were seeded directly into the quarterfinals and they lost right away, despite strong performances at Worlds just two months prior.
TES head to the arena for First Stand 2025. Image Source: Moon Suwon / Riot Games
In the end, IG won the Demacia Cup 2025. The LPL’s fourth seed changed most of their roster since their short run at Worlds 2025. Soboro replaces the legendary top laner TheShy as he takes a break from competitive play, Photic and Jwei are taking over GALA and Meiko’s spots, and KaKAO steps in instead of Daeny as a coach. On top of them, academy player Renard also played mid lane to replace Rookie during his vacation.
Even then, Invictus Gaming’s identity looked no different. Today, they were just as much of a teamfighting team with explosive results as they were each year prior. Renard stepped in just fine, Photic and Jwei beat their opposition every game, and Wei put on a masterclass. The jungler ended up with a combined score of 26/6/21. As for Soboro, he played the very same way TheShy did in his spot.
JD Gaming were considered favorites going into the grand finals. In the offseason, JDG picked up IG’s former ADC GALA and HongQ and Junjia from CTBC Flying Oysters. The team stomped through their opposition in the playoffs and looked good doing so. However, Wei showed up too well for JDG to stand a chance, and IG gave them no room to play in this swift 3-0.
With this Demacia Cup first place, this is Invictus Gaming’s first tournament win since the LPL Spring 2019. While offseason tournaments aren’t the peak of competition, a win is a win. IG has now won three editions of the Demacia Cup:
Here are the full results of the Demacia Cup 2025:
| Placement | Team | Stage reached | Prize money won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Invictus Gaming | Finals, 3-0 | ¥500,000 ($71,491) |
| 2nd | JD Gaming | Finals, 0-3 | ¥300,000 ($42,895) |
| 3rd – 4th | LNG Esports | Semifinals, 0-3 | ¥200,000 ($28,597) |
| 3rd – 4th | LGD Gaming | Semifinals, 0-3 | ¥200,000 ($28,597) |
| 5th – 8th | Top Esports | Quarterfinals, 1-3 (The team started in the quarterfinals) | |
| 5th – 8th | EDward Gaming | Quarterfinals, 1-3 | |
| 5th – 8th | Oh My God | Quarterfinals, 2-3 | |
| 5th – 8th | Anyone’s Legend | Quarterfinals, 0-3 (The team started in the quarterfinals) | |
| 9th – 10th | Ninjas in Pyjamas | Group Stage 2, 4th place (1-3) | |
| 9th – 10th | Weibo Gaming | Group Stage 2, 4th place (2-2) | |
| 11th – 12th | Team WE | Group Stage 2, 5th place (0-4) | |
| 11th – 12th | Bilibili Gaming | Group Stage 2, 5th place (1-3) | |
| 13th – 14th | TT Gaming | Group Stage 1, 3rd place (1-2) | |
| 13th – 14th | Ultra Prime | Group Stage 1, 3rd place (1-2) | |
| 15th – 16th | ZSM (Streamer team) | Group Stage 1, 4th place (0-3) | |
| 15th – 16th | FRK (Streamer team) | Group Stage 1, 4th place (0-3) |
JDG’s new jungler JunJia waves before heading into game at First Stand 2025. Image Source: Christina Oh / Riot Games
Once again, the offseason tournament was used as an opportunity to test a format.
In 2020 and 2021, the first game in each Best of 5 in the Demacia Cup was played using blind pick. The game afterwards ran a regular draft. In 2024, the tournament used Fearless Draft before it debuted worldwide in Winter 2025.
This year, the matches still used Fearless Draft. However, the game 3 of each Best of 3 and game 5 of each Best of 5 was played in blind pick, removing all bans. This led to the Oh My God vs LNG Esports being the first match to have a game 5 blind pick in over a decade.
The last time this happened was in Summer 2015, in the LCK’s semifinals between KOO Tigers and KT Rolster. Blind pick game 5 was a tradition of the LCK (then OGN) and led to famous moments such as the Faker vs Ryu Zed mirror match, but it was removed in 2016 and never reused since.
Anyone’s Legend in game at MSI 2025. Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games
Semifinals and Finals of the Demacia Cup 2025 allowed the use of Coach Comms. This feature gives the teams windows where the players can speak with their coach, during the game. This rule will be further tested in the LCK Cup 2026 and LCP Winter Split 2026.
Supposedly, enabling Coach Comms should lead to a higher level of play, with better decisions and more control of the game plan. In practice, all three matches with it were swift 3-0s. Read more about Coach Comms here.
We can’t know when the players made use of the feature, and we don’t even know whether they chose to opt into it or not. As such, there are unfortunately no conclusions to draw from this with a sample of only three matches.
With the end of the Demacia Cup, all of the 2025 offseason tournaments are now over, T1 having won the KeSPA Cup back in December. The competitive season 2026 will kick off in mid-January for all leagues. The LPL 2026 Split 1 will start on January 14th, 2026.
Featured Image Source: Liu YiCun / Riot Games
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