LCP 2026 Split 1 Officially Concludes with Team Secret Whales Claiming the Championship.

The second week of the LCP 2026 Stage 1 Playoffs has officially concluded, with Team Secret Whales brilliantly defeating Deep Cross Gaming to claim their first championship title and secure a spot in the First Stand.

Team Secret Whales advance to the Grand Finals, SHG concludes their Magical Journey against DCG.

Right after the Lunar New Year holiday, the League of Legends Asia-Pacific (LCP) 2026 tournament heated up again with Week 2 of Stage 1 Playoffs to find the strongest team to advance to the First Stand 2026. From the Winners Bracket Finals between Team Secret Whales (TSW) and Deep Cross Gaming (DCG), fans witnessed intense and exciting matches.

TSW held the advantage, taking a 2-0 lead, but DCG quickly proved why they deserved to be in this match, leveling the score at 2-2. In the decisive game, the outstanding performance of support player Bie contributed to a crucial victory for "Hidden Whale Gang," securing the Vietnamese League of Legends Esports representative's place in the Grand Finals. Meanwhile, the match between the two "dark horses," Softbank HAWS Gaming (SHG) and Ground Zero Gaming (GZ), witnessed a stunning performance from the Japanese warriors.

With a revamped coaching staff, including the addition of former PSG coach CorGi, and the recruitment of three Korean players while retaining only Evi and Marble, SHG has rekindled hope for the LJL League of Legends scene, having previously defeated both GAM Esports and MVK Esports from Vietnam. In the Losers Bracket Semifinal, SHG took a convincing 2-0 lead. Although GZ managed to win one game in just 24 minutes, SHG prevented the Australian team from advancing further, ultimately securing a 3-1 victory.

Advancing to the Lower Bracket Finals, SHG maintained their advantage, leading DCG 2-0, and many began anticipating a classic rematch between the LJL and VCS regions in the Grand Finals. But once again, DCG demonstrated their resilience, winning game after game, ultimately securing a 3-2 victory.

This result propelled DCG into the Grand Finals, once again facing TSW, and this time the VCS representatives were leading 2-0, almost securing LCP's only ticket to First Stand 2026.

With an emotional victory, TSW ascends to the pinnacle of glory at LCP 2026.

In the third game, TSW began to surprise when Pun picked Sett,  despite  DCG's lineup having two extremely strong tank champions,  Sion  and  Mundo.  Although the bot lane faced considerable pressure in the early stages,  Eddie  and  Bie  maintained their composure to minimize the number of kills. Meanwhile, Feng on the opposing side struggled considerably, constantly being targeted by Hizto. As the game progressed,  Pun's Sett  became even more dangerous, remaining undefeated and landing some highly effective W abilities.

A series of successful team fights gave TSW a huge advantage, with the Vietnamese team leading by 10,000 gold plus the Baron buff by the 21st minute. At 21:58, DCG, in an attempt to break through, decided to launch a full-scale attack on Pun and suffered a devastating counterattack. With just one use of  Arena Annihilation  and  Beast Fury,  Sett  eliminated  ShiauC's Seraphine  , causing chaos in the DCG ranks before Pun's teammates rushed in to finish the game.

Securing a convincing 3-0 victory, Team Secret Whales officially won their first ever LCP championship title and also made their first appearance at First Stand 2026. Even more significantly, with this year's First Stand being held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, TSW's journey will also mark the return of Vietnamese League of Legends to this South American region since MSI 2017 – where GAM Esports first introduced the VCS region to the world.

The foundation that GAM has established

Now inherited by Team Secret Whales

TSW marks a generational shift after nearly 10 years of building GAM's reputation, and now Vietnamese esports fans have new faces to look forward to a successful year for League of Legends, with other major tournaments awaiting Coach Warhorse and his team.