For the first time in many years, LCK has changed the schedule when moving to 3 seasons instead of 2 seasons. The first major tournament of the Korean League of Legends in 2025 will be the LCK Cup, which takes place from January 15, 2025 – February 23, 2025 with 10 teams attending.
LCK also conducted activities to prepare for this tournament. 2025 LCK Cup will apply a completely different way when the two teams and runner -up last season, Hanwha Life Esports and Geng will choose the teams in the group. The table selection results include:
– Baron table: Hanwha Life Esports, T1, BNK Fearx, DNSEs, Brion
– Elder table: geng, dplus, KT Rolster, NS Redforce, DRX
In terms of formula, 2025 LCK Cup applies new rules when teams from Baron will face teams in the Elder table and vice versa. After the group stage ends, the table that won more will be the “winning table”, the rest will be the “losing table”.
The three teams from the “winning table” will go straight to the play-off round, while the last two teams and 4 teams from the “losing table” will go to the play-in play. Finally, the last team at the “losing table” will be the only team eliminated. All matches in the group stage will be delineated by BO3.
At Play-in, 6 teams will be divided into two branches based on the number of victories in the group stage. After that, the three teams overcoming the Play-in will enter the play-off with the same format as the seasons before the two teams leading the “winning table” will go straight to the semi-finals. At the same time, the first team will be selected in the second round, after the matches in the first round. In the end, the teams will continue to play according to the winning branch – the losing branch until the champion.
The first tournament of the League of Legends will be the first time LCK has applied the “Hard Fearless Draft” format, whereby the generals will only be selected once by a team during the match. The 2025 LCK Cup championship team will be the only representative of Korea to play at Riot Games's new international event with the name First Stand.
