The LPL Demacia Cup roster has been announced, with Viper starting! JDG's main players will compete, while Knight is confirmed absent.

Greetings to all LPL fans and League of Legends summoners, this is Tianxia Game Exchange.

The LCK's KeSPA Cup is nearing its finals, while the LPL's Demacia Cup is about to kick off, featuring 14 LPL teams plus two streaming platform squads competing for the title.

Earlier, the Demacia Cup published the starting lineups for the top teams, which has stirred conversations among the audience.

The Demacia Cup roster is out, with Viper set to start.

The LPL's Demacia Cup is somewhat similar to the LCK's KeSPA Cup in nature; it serves as a post-transfer period event focused on team practice. Many teams field their main rosters, but some players and teams choose to rest, mostly due to fatigue from the full year's competitions, taking time to recharge.

This Demacia Cup's most watched teams are BLG, JDG, WBG, and AL, all of whom assembled strong rosters during the transfer window.

Among these four, AL will have all their main players absent, resting and preparing for the S16 season training camp.

The other three teams have interesting storylines. BLG, the most anticipated, will field all main players except for mid laner Knight. Viper will make his LPL return as a starter in the Demacia Cup, making it one of the event's biggest highlights. Additionally, Xun’s comeback performance is also highly awaited.

WBG and JDG will both send out their full main rosters, as these teams have nearly rebuilt their lineups and need early matches to warm up.

Ale becomes the top laner for the streamer team, challenging LPL squads.

WBG and JDG are the most favored to become the region’s dark horses next year, both having the strength to contend for the Demacia Cup title. Meanwhile, IG and TES will mostly be without their main players. TES’s roster has weakened; their jungle player Naiyou and support Fengyue are the mainstays for next year, while the other three positions are filled by relatively unknown IDs.

For IG, The Shy and Rookie are both resting. Their support signing Jwei looks promising, but the bottom lane player Photic’s ID has fans worried greatly.

Looking at other LPL teams, most lineups don’t stand out. If anything, LNG’s new roster has some potential since they brought in Korean imports for mid and jungle, with 1xn at bottom lane and Missing as support. They assembled a decent team during the transfer period, but their ceiling seems limited, making it tough to break into the top four even if they perform well.

Another highlight is the team from the platform-hosted Old Boys Cup. The ZSM team features two familiar IDs: top laner Ale and mid laner Fofo. Ale was still playing in the LPL this year but has now transformed into a streamer team top laner, set to challenge LPL teams to see how well he can perform.

Many teams will just accompany the run, causing a significant drop in excitement.

In my opinion, the ZSM and FRK teams from the Old Boys Cup can largely serve as a litmus test for the LPL league’s strength. If these two teams manage to defeat some LPL squads, it would prove that the current level of LPL teams is quite questionable, leading to many teams merely accompanying the run.

Having too many weak teams will cause the league’s popularity to decline, as viewers won’t want to watch matches with obvious mismatches or weak confrontations, which becomes dull.

Moreover, even the strong LPL teams don’t have as much hype as expected. This year, IG’s all-star lineup was relatively well-assembled and generated high viewership, but they couldn’t maintain it. At least for the first split next year, no team seems able to carry the LPL region’s viewership crown, which is a blow for the LPL organizers.

We can only hope that next year, LPL teams can fight for a championship in the first split’s Vanguards tournament, and that IG’s The Shy and Rookie both return. With these dual boosts in hype, LPL viewers’ enthusiasm for watching games will increase. The worst case would be if international competitions still don’t improve next year and The Shy announces retirement again.