LCK Cup 2026 Week 2 Highlights

The battle between the Baron Group and the Elder Group continues in the LCK Cup. After the conclusion of the opening week, teams returned to action on Wednesday looking either to confirm their strong early form or to recover from a disappointing start.

While results largely followed expectations, the week nevertheless featured several surprises, along with the kind of spectacular games and moments that the LCK has accustomed viewers to. Sheep Esports presents a roundup of the five key takeaways from this second week of competition.

After a disappointing opening week in which Hanwha Life Esports’ superteam fell to both T1 and Nongshim RedForce, the Orange side bounced back to claim their first two wins of the season. In a hard-fought series against HANJIN BRION, HLE dropped game two before relying on individual performances — particularly from Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo — to prevail 2–1. A similar scenario unfolded two days later against DN SOOPers, this time with Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyung stepping up as the team’s savior.

In a post-match interview, new jungler Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok acknowledged that the team still lacks coordination and must continue working on its synergy. Hanwha Life Esports will close out the group stage against Gen.G Esports.

The reigning LCK champions continue to look strong. Tested by a resilient BNK FEARX squad, Gen.G were forced into a difficult opening game. Two rare moments stood out: star midlaner Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon was solo-killed by Lee "VicLa" Dae-kwang, and jungler Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu stole two major objectives with Jarvan IV’s flag — including a decisive Baron Nashor that could have swung the game against his team.

Two days later, Gen.G extended their momentum by defeating an unbeaten Dplus Kia. They remain the only team in the LCK Cup yet to concede a loss.

This marked the first meeting between KT Rolster and T1 since their Worlds final, which delivered a sixth world championship title to T1. As expected, the Telecom War once again proved anything but ordinary. Ryu "Keria" Min-seok underlined this by locking in Lissandra support in game one, the sixtieth champion of his professional career.

T1 claimed the opening game comfortably but struggled in the second. KT built a lead of over 13k gold at one point, yet failed to close out the match. Under pressure from T1’s scaling, KT conceded an Elder Drake and the ensuing fight, which sealed another victory for the reigning world champions. A new year in the LCK, but the Telecom War remains firmly in T1’s hands. T1 then secured their second win of the week despite a great resistance from BNK FEARX and a wonderful duel between the youngstars Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan and Nam "Diable" Dae-geun.

After an unforgiving first week featuring matches against Gen.G and T1, DRX found more room to express themselves. In a closely contested series, the 2022 world champions initially fell 2–1 to DN SOOPers. Against Nongshim RedForce, however, DRX prevailed, displaying a far more convincing performance, particularly in game one. Mun "Andil" Gwan-bin was the standout, earning MVP honors for his display.

Nongshim, meanwhile, continue to struggle for rhythm. Despite an encouraging victory over HLE in week one, Lee "Scout" Ye-chan and his teammates closed the week at 1–3. The former 2021 world champion was not the primary issue, but NS’s collective performances have yet to meet expectations.

After ten matchdays, the Baron and Elder groups remain deadlocked with ten wins apiece. The Baron Group has been largely carried by the combined eight victories of T1 and Gen.G, while BRION are still winless despite pushing KT Rolster to the limit on Sunday. In the Elder Group, every team has secured at least one win, with Dplus Kia leading at 3–1.

As a reminder, the top two teams from the winning group will qualify directly for the playoffs, along with the top team from the losing group. The bottom three teams from the winning group and the middle three from the losing group will enter the play-ins, while only the last-place team from the losing group will be eliminated. This week features five matches, played from Wednesday to Sunday, between teams with identical seeding to determine the final group standings.