LPL becomes the first regional LoL league to abolish relegation/promotion system.

According to the official League of Legends esports Weibo page, China's LoL Pro League (LPL) will become the first regional league to implement franchising in professional League of Legends.

The current promotion/relegation system will be abolished in favor of the franchising system. The 12 teams that are currently on the LPL will retain their spot without any chance of relegation. The number of teams on LPL will increase to 14 in 2018, and to even 20 in future.

The announcement also revealed that LPL will implement a city-based system. With the new city-based system, LPL will now be hosted in 3 to 5 cities along with home and away games from 2018. As for LSPL, which is equivalent to Challengers league, it will merge with TGA into a single league.