The ten LCK teams have been divided into two groups for the summer split’s Rounds 3-5: the Legend Group with the top five teams from spring—Gen.G, Hanwha Life Esports, T1, Nongshim RedForce, and KT Rolster—and the Rise Group with the five lower-ranked teams—Dplus KIA, BNK FearX, OKSavingsbank BRION, DRX, and DN Freecs.

A punishing format

As a reminder, the last spot in the Legend Group was decided by a tense best-of-three tiebreaker between DK and KT, which KT Rolster won, earning them a place among the LCK’s top teams. The summer split will be played in two groups with a triple round robin format, meaning each team will play 12 best-of-three matches. A major change is that teams will also carry over their records from LCK Rounds 1-2, making the year quite punishing for some, like the Freecs, and very favorable for others, such as Gen.G or Hanwha Life Esports, who dominated the Spring Split.

The top two teams from the Legend Group will qualify directly for the second round of the Playoffs, while the third and fourth place teams will start in the first round. The last team in the Legend Group, along with the top three teams from the Rise Group, will have to go through a play-in phase to reach the LCK 2025 Season Playoffs. This phase will determine the sole LCK champion of the year as well as the teams that will represent Korea at the World Championship.

The Road to MSI in the LCK will begin on Saturday, June 7th, with a rematch of the tiebreaker, where KT and DK will face off in an elimination match to decide who will take on Nongshim. On the other side, Gen.G will play Hanwha Life Esports on June 13th, while T1 will face the team that advances from the lower bracket. All of this is for a spot in the Lower Bracket Final, which will determine the LCK’s second seed for MSI.