LTA North Split 2 2025 preview: Team Liquid’s point to prove, 100 Thieves out for revenge?

Kicking off on April 5th, LTA North Split 2 2025 is just around the corner. North America’s best teams will once again be back in action, with some competing in a competitive match for the first time in over two months.

For the next two months, teams will compete for a lion’s share of the LTA’s $160,000 (~£123,000) prize pool and a spot in this year’s Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and Esports World Cup (EWC).

Despite a surprisingly quiet off-season, there’s still plenty to be excited about for the upcoming season. So, here’s some of the biggest talking points ahead of LTA North Split 2 2025.

Perhaps the first thing to highlight is the LTA North Split 2 2025 format. Unlike Split 1, there is no competition against the LTA Southern conference. Instead of the last split’s tournament bracket format, Split 2 will be separated into three distinct phases.

Firstly, ‘Positioning Phase’ begins on April 5th to 20th. It will be a single round robin format, with every match being best-of-one.

Group Stage begins on April 26th and runs until May 18th, 2025. Matches will be best-of-three and will include the Fearless Draft format from this point on. The top six will move to the playoffs from May 24th to June 15th, 2025. This will be a double-elimination tournament, with matches being best-of-five. Given LTA North Split 1’s short duration, the new format looks to provide a greater look at all of the competition’s representatives. .

Team Liquid has had its fair share of highs and lows this season, from winning the LTA Split 1 Cross Conference to becoming the first to be eliminated in First Stand 2025.

Sean ‘Yeon’ Sung shared with Esports Insider that Team Liquid failed to show their A-game at the event. Moreover, he highlighted that the performance was not indicative of North America’s overall strength.

Following Team Liquid’s disappointing international performance, the team will be looking to make a comeback in Split 2. To achieve this, the organisation will need to get another shot at the international stage, this time looking to qualify for EWC and MSI.

Team Liquid’s opportunity to prove itself will arrive sooner than anticipated, as the team will face off against top LTA North contenders FlyQuest and 100 Thieves in the opening week.

Despite losing the first-ever LTA Cross Conference to Team Liquid, 100 Thieves were the inaugural winners of LTA North’s first split after defeating Cloud9 in the grand finals.

100T is currently considered to be one of the favourites to win the event yet again despite its setback in the finals. The team boasts a solid line-up of veterans such as Victor ‘FBI’ Huang, who was a standout performer last split, and Kim ‘River’ Dong-woo.

Following Team Liquid’s performance at First Stand, 100 Thieves may be looking to make an early statement and claim the title of LTA North’s best team. Luckily, this opportunity is coming as soon as April 6th in the positioning phase.

Aside from Denilson ‘Ceos‘ Oliveira making his long-awaited debut for Shopify Rebellion, LTA North’s roster line-up has remained the same for Split 2. This is certainly unusual given how often esports organisations cycle through players.

It seems that organisations are placing more faith and confidence in their line-ups this time around, perhaps due to the fact that there was such a small sample size of competitive games in Split 1.

With teams having more time to practice together, this split could offer up some surprise contenders. While top teams like FlyQuest have been able to compete longer in the tournament, others that were eliminated early have been afforded time to hone their skills in the background.

LTA North Split 2 is set to kick off at 1 pm PT (8 pm GMT) on April 5th on the league’s official Twitch channel.