The Demacia Cup is going international for the first time, with TJ Sports and Huya turning the traditionally Chinese League of Legends tournament into the 2026 Demacia Cup Global Invitational. Twelve teams from the LPL, LCK, LEC, LCS, LCP, and CBLOL will compete from Oct. 3 to 17, with invitations reserved for teams that miss the 2026 World Championship.
The LPL and LCK receive three places each, going to their highest-ranked eligible teams in fifth through seventh. The LEC and LCS get two slots each for their fourth and fifth-place teams, while the LCP and CBLOL receive one apiece. The distribution is based on regional results at MSI 2026, with the top two regions receiving three invitations, third and fourth receiving two, and the remaining regions getting one.
Invitations will only go to teams that have not qualified for Worlds, with the next eligible team taking the place if someone declines. LPL and LCP invitations use Championship Points, while CBLOL will send its fourth-place team because of the region’s schedule. The final 12-team lineup therefore will not be known until more of the regional seasons and Worlds qualification races are complete.
The Demacia Cup has spent more than a decade as one of China’s main domestic tournaments, usually giving LPL teams another competition during the offseason. The 2025 edition featured 16 teams and ended with Invictus Gaming sweeping JD Gaming 3-0 in the final, with a ¥1.2 million prize pool shared between the top four finishers.
The new Global Invitational begins with an online Swiss stage from Oct. 3 to 8. All 12 teams start in the same field, opening matchups are drawn randomly while avoiding teams from the same region, and eight teams advance. Round one uses best-of-one matches, with subsequent series played as best-of-threes.
The remaining eight teams move to the JDG home venue in Beijing for a single-elimination offline bracket from Oct. 12 to 17. Every knockout match is a best-of-five, with quarterfinals on Oct. 12 and 13, semifinals on Oct. 14 and 15, and the grand final on Oct. 17.
Coach Comms will also return for the offline stage, allowing a coach to speak directly with players up to three times per game for 45 seconds without pausing play. Demacia Cup first experimented with the system during its 2025 playoffs before similar trials in the LCK Cup and LCP earlier this year.
The 2026 tournament has a ¥1.5 million (~$223,000) prize pool, up from ¥1.2 million last year. The champion receives ¥600,000, the runner-up gets ¥400,000, semifinalists earn ¥175,000 each, and teams eliminated in the quarterfinals receive ¥37,500 apiece.
