2025 LCK season

Last updated
2025 LCK season
League LCK
Sport League of Legends
Duration
  • 15 January – 23 February (LCK Cup)
  • TBD (Rounds 1–2 & Road to MSI)
  • TBD (Rounds 3–5, play-ins, playoffs)
Number of teams10
LCK Cup
Road to MSI
Playoffs
LCK seasons
2026 →

The 2025 LCK season is the currently ongoing 14th season of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), a South Korean professional esports league for the video game League of Legends . It will be the first LCK season under the new three-split structure and competitive calendar introduced the game's developer Riot Games starting with the 2025 competitive season. [1]

Contents

Unlike past seasons, the 2025 LCK season is divided into three parts, with the first being the LCK Cup, which will determine the region's lone representative at the 2025 First Stand Tournament. The next two parts are a merged season divided into two halves. The first half will feature the first two rounds of the season, with the top teams qualifying for the "Road to MSI" bracket, which will determine the region's representatives at the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational; the second half will feature the last three rounds of the season and the LCK Play-Ins and Playoffs to determine the Season Champion and the three Korean representatives (or four if the LCK finishes as a finalist at MSI) at the 2025 League of Legends World Championship.

League changes

Season structure and format

In line with Riot Games' announcement of a new split structure and competitive calendar for League of Legends esports beginning with the 2025 competitive season, the LCK announced on 29 October 2024 that the former Spring and Summer Splits would be merged into one season, with the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational in between them, and the creation of the LCK Cup to serve as a qualifier for the inaugural First Stand Tournament. Additionally, the last three rounds of the season taking place after MSI 2025 will feature a triple round-robin group stage and a season champion will be crowned, with results from Rounds 1 and 2 having implications for teams in Rounds 3 to 5. [2]

Teams

Only one team change occurred heading into the 2025 season. On 26 December 2024, Kwangdong Freecs renamed to "DN Freecs" after signing a sponsorship deal with DN Group. [3]

LCK Cup

Draft and Format

The LCK Cup will feature ten (10) competing teams. For the group stage, teams were divided into two groups of five teams – Group Baron and Group Elder, named after two in-game objectives, Baron Nashor and the Elder Dragon. In determining the teams in both groups, a draft was conducted on 6 January 2025. During the draft, the finalists from the 2024 LCK Summer Split, Hanwha Life Esports (HLE) and Gen.G (GEN) were assigned to Baron and Elder, respectively. As HLE were the Summer Split champions, they were given the first pick of the draft. HLE and GEN took turns to make their first selections, with those selections picking the next teams in their respective groups in a snake format until all teams were selected into specific groups. [4] The following were the results of the draft per group:

Each team will play cross matches against the other group in a single round-robin format, where all matches will be played in best-of-threes. Accumulated results of teams in their respective groups will be used to determine a Winners group and a Losers group. The top three (3) teams in the winners group will directly advance to the playoffs, while the fourth and fifth-ranked teams will join the top four (4) teams in the losers group in the play-in stage. The last-ranked team in the latter group will be eliminated. [5]

The play-in stage will feature six (6) teams in three rounds. The first round will feature the third to sixth ranked teams according to their seeding in a single-elimination format. Winners of the two best-of-three series in this round will advance to a double-elimination bracket second round, where they will face the top two (2) seeded teams from the same crop of play-in teams; while losing first round teams will be eliminated. The winners of the two second round series, also in best-of-threes, will advance to the playoffs. Meanwhile, the losing teams will face in a best-of-five third round to determine the final playoffs spot. Seeding for the first round will be assigned based on a team's individual wins in the group stage regardless of group.

In the playoffs, six (6) teams will be featured in a semi-double elimination format where the three teams from the play-in stage will start in the first round alongside the third-ranked team from the winners group. The top two-ranked teams from the said group get an automatic bye into the second round. All matches will be played in a best-of-five. The winner of the LCK Cup will represent the region as its lone representative at the 2025 First Stand tournament. [5] [2]

The LCK Cup will implement the "Fearless Draft" format, which was popularized by China's LoL Development League, where teams cannot pick a champion that they've already played in a series, even if the champion was picked by the opposing team. The tournament began on 15 January.

Group Stage

Group Baron

PosTeamPldWLPCT
1DN Freecs211.500
2T1211.500
3Hanwha Life Esports211.500
4BNK FearX202.000
5OKSavingsBank Brion202.000
Updated to match(es) played on 15 January 2025. Source: LoL Esports

Group Elder

PosTeamPldWLPCT
1Dplus KIA2201.000
2Gen.G2201.000
3KT Rolster211.500
4DRX211.500
5Nongshim RedForce211.500
Updated to match(es) played on 15 January 2025. Source: LoL Esports

Regular Season

Rounds 1–2 & Road to MSI

Format

Across nine weeks of competition, ten (10) competing teams will participate in a double round-robin tournament, where all matches will be played in best-of-threes, similar to the most-recent format for the Spring and Summer Splits of previous LCK seasons. The top six teams from these rounds will participate in Road to MSI, with all matches being best-of-five. The top two (2) ranked teams from the first two rounds of the season will play for the region's first seed at the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational. The four (4) remaining teams will be seeded in a five-round single-elimination king-of-the hill tournament, with the fifth and sixth-ranked teams beginning in round one; the fourth-ranked team seeded in round two, and the third-ranked team seeded in round three. The loser of the first-seed playoff will be relegated to the fifth round, in which the winner of such will earn the LCK's second seed at MSI 2025. [2] If the lone representative of the LCK at the First Stand Tournament wins the entire event, the two teams who earn the LCK's two slots at MSI 2025 will both get byes to the Bracket Stage, skipping the Play-in Stage entirely.

Rounds 3–5

Format

Based on the standings from the first two rounds of the season, the ten (10) competing teams will be ranked and divided into two groups – Legend Group (consisting of the top five teams) and Rise Group (consisting of the bottom five teams). Each team in their respective groups will play a triple round robin where all matches will be played in best-of-threes. The top two (2) teams from the legend group will directly advance to the second round of playoffs, while the next two ranked teams (3rd and 4th) will move on to the first round of playoffs. The fifth-ranked team from the legend group and the top three (3) teams from the rise group will be placed in the play-ins, and the bottom two (2) teams of said group will be eliminated. [6]

Play-ins

Format

In a double-elimination format, the four (4) teams will participate in the play-in stage, where winners of the first two series will advance to the winners bracket, while losing teams will be relegated to the losers bracket. The two winners of the first two series will face each other, with the winning team securing the fifth seed in the playoffs. The losing team of the fifth-seed playoff will be relegated to the 6th-place playoff, in which the winner of said series will clinch the sixth seed. [2]

Playoffs

The six (6) remaining teams will contest the playoffs in a double-elimination format, where all matches will be played in best-of-fives. The top (3) teams from the playoffs will qualify for the 2025 League of Legends World Championship, with the winner of the finals being crowned the Season Champion. [6]

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References

  1. ↑ "LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future". lolesports.com. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "2025 LCK 변경점 [ENG Sub]" (video). youtube.com (in Korean). League of Legends Champions Korea. 29 October 2024.
  3. ↑ Gavankar, Varun (29 September 2024). "Kwangdong Freecs Rebrands to DN Freecs After New Sponsorship Deal". ESPORTZ. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  4. ↑ Luque, Armand (6 January 2025). "LoL: LCK Cup 2025 groups unveiled". Sheep Esports. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  5. 1 2 Tan, Amanda (29 October 2024). "New LCK format in 2025 is massive, adds many rounds to single regular season — all changes explained". ONE Esports. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  6. 1 2 Jones, Lee (29 October 2024). "LCK announces major format changes for 2025". Esports Insider. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
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