On Tuesday, Riot Games revealed the format of the LCK in 2025, with an LCK Cup to open the season and then a single regular season interspersed with the MSI.
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LCK Trophy
The LCK Cup will be played in Fearless Draft
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Each season brings its own updates to the formats in League of Legends' competitive circuit, and 2025 will see several major changes in the LCK, as Riot Games revealed on Tuesday. The Korean league’s season will open with an LCK Cup, qualifying a team for the new international tournament introduced by the publisher next year.
Following this, the LCK will adopt a single split divided into multiple rounds: rounds 1 and 2 before the MSI, followed by rounds 3 through 5 afterward. The season will conclude with playoffs, determining the single LCK champion of the year and the teams qualifying for Worlds. Find the details of each phase of the season below.
LCK Cup:
The LCK Cup will be held in three stages: the Group Battle, the play-in, and the playoffs, all played with a semi-Fearless draft, which prevents teams from reselecting a champion they have already played during the series.
Group Battle:
The ten teams are split into two groups of five, with teams selecting their group composition. The top two teams from the 2024 season will be assigned to Groups A and B, and each will select an additional team from the remaining pool of eight. The selected teams will then choose the next team to join their group until each group has five teams. Each team will play against the five teams of the other group in a BO3 format. At the end of the matches, the group with the most wins will be designated the “Winners Group.” The top three teams from this group advance directly to the playoffs, while the bottom two teams in the Winners Group and the top four in the Losers Group proceed to the play-in round. The last-place team in the Losers Group will be eliminated from the LCK Cup.
LCK Cup play-in and playoffs qualification system Credit: YouTube LCK
Play-in:
The six teams of the play-in will compete in a BO3 two-round bracket based on their wins in the group phase, regardless of their former group. The top two teams will skip the first round. Winners of the second-round matches qualify for the playoffs, while the losers will play a BO5 for the final playoff spot.
LCK Cup play-in bracket. Credit: YouTube LCK
Playoffs:
The LCK Cup playoffs will be similar to the current format, featuring a semi-double-elimination structure, with all series in BO5. The top two teams from the Winners Group will skip the first round. The third-best team from the Winners Group will face the last team to qualify from the play-in. The first two teams to qualify from the play-in will face each other in the first round of the playoffs. The winner will qualify for the first international event of the year in March.
LCK Cup playoffs bracket. Credit: YouTube LCK
LCK Season
LCK Rounds 1-2:
Rounds 1 and 2 of the LCK regular season will use a BO3 double round-robin format, where each team faces all others twice, similar to the 2024 season format. At the end of these rounds, the top six teams will qualify for the “LCK Road to MSI” tournament, held in BO5. The top two teams will compete for a direct MSI slot, with the losing team playing against the survivor of the King of the Hill format for the second MSI ticket.
LCK Road to MSI bracket. Credit: YouTube LCK
LCK Rounds 3-5:
Based on their results from rounds 1-2, the top ten teams are divided into two groups, with the top five forming the Legend Group and the bottom five forming the Rise Group. Within each group, teams play a BO3 triple round robin.
At the end of this phase, the top two in the Legend Group qualify for the second round of the playoffs, while the 3rd and 4th seeds head to the first round. The fifth-placed team in the Legend Group will face the top three teams from the Rise Group in a BO5 play-in. The top two from this play-in will qualify for the playoffs, which will be BO5 in a double-elimination bracket. Qualification for Worlds will be determined at the end of these playoffs, replacing the previous Regional Qualifier.
