The LCK has revealed a new format for the 2025 season, starting with the LCK Cup, which will not be part of the regular season but will serve to qualify one team for the first international competition in March. The tournament features a hardcore fearless draft, where selected champions are banned for subsequent matches. Ten teams will be split into two groups, with playoffs structured to ultimately crown a single LCK champion, replacing the previous system that had multiple champions per season.
The LCK Cup to Kick Off the Season
This morning, the LCK announced its new format for 2025 in a statement on X.
The LCK introduces a new structure featuring three main parts!
The season will commence with a tournament tentatively named the LCK Cup. Here are the key details about this event:
- The LCK Cup is not part of the regular LCK season and will solely serve to qualify for the first international competition of the year (in March).
- Only the champion will qualify.
- The tournament will utilize a hardcore fearless draft format (characters selected by both teams will be automatically banned for the subsequent match).
How will the LCK Cup unfold?
The 10 LCK teams will be divided into two groups of 5. The top two teams from the previous LCK season (likely HLE and Gen.G) will select a team to be included in their group. Then, chosen teams will reciprocate the selection process until the groups are complete.
Following that, each team from a group will face all teams from the opposite group in a best-of-three series (no return matches). The combined results will generate scores for both Group A and B.
The top three teams from the winning group will qualify directly for the playoffs. The next two teams from the winning group and the top four teams from the losing group will proceed to a play-in (with the bottom team from the losing group being eliminated).
The play-in will follow a classic format with seeding advantages for teams that secured the most wins in the prior phase (regardless of their previous groups). Matches will be best-of-three, except for the play-in final, which will be a best-of-five.
The remaining six teams will compete in a best-of-five format within a bracket featuring a loser bracket (starting from round 3). This bracket will mirror the one utilized in the current year’s LCK.
A Fresh Regular Season Structure Crowning One Champion Each Year
After the first international tournament of the year, the LCK will transition into its regular season with rounds 1 and 2.
There will be no changes from last year; the 10 teams will compete in home-and-away best-of-three matches. The top six teams will qualify for the LCK Road to MSI.
The two leading teams will engage in a best-of-five match, with the winner becoming seed 1 for the MSI.
Seed 2 will be determined by a format known as King of the Hill, which has previously been used as the playoffs format in the LCK for several seasons. The higher your regular season ranking, the higher your starting position in the tournament tree (meaning fewer matches will be needed for qualification). All matches will be best-of-five.
Post-MSI, the regular season will resume with rounds 3 to 5. Based on the standings from rounds 1 and 2, the 10 teams will be split into two groups of 5. The top five will be in the Legend group, while the remaining five will be in the Rise group (very similar to the Summer Split format used in the LPL this year). Each team will face all other teams in its group three times (in best-of-three matches).
The top two teams from the Legend group will move directly to round 2 of the playoffs (as was the case this year in the LCK after the 18 best-of-three matches). The next two teams (third and fourth) will be qualified for round 1. The last-place team from the Legend group and the top three teams from the Rise group will participate in a play-in. The bottom two teams from the Rise group will be eliminated.
This play-in will consist of five best-of-five matches