All upcoming changes in the League of Legends LCK 2025 season

Significant format alterations are coming to the South Korean League of Legends esports scene, known as the LCK. Historically, the league consisted of two splits accompanied by two principal international events annually. However, under the forthcoming changes, the LCK will consolidate into a single split, incorporating additional tournaments and qualifiers interspersed throughout the season.

This article highlights all of the upcoming changes coming into the League of Legends LCK scene in 2025.

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League of Legends LCK 2025: New tournaments and format changes

The League of Legends esports scene will feature three international events in 2025 instead of two. The newly added one will be held in March, and the LCK teams will have to go through a qualifier to participate in it.

All three international tournaments have been mentioned below:

• First international tournament (name TBD): March
• Mid-Season Invitational: June-July
• Worlds: October-November

There will be changes coming to the LCK splits as well. Up until now, two LCK splits have been occurring in a year: LCK Spring and LCK Summer, with one team crowned the champion in a season. From next year, the LCK splits will merge into a single season. That means there will be one winner per year in the LCK.

However, a new tournament called the LCK CUP will be held before the LCK split. This will be the first tournament of the year and will be scheduled during January and February. The winners of this event will qualify for the first international tournament in LoL esports.

Here are the LCK tournaments scheduled to take place from 2025:

• LCK CUP
• LCK Regular Season

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1) League of Legends LCK CUP

The LCK CUP will give us a glimpse of how things have panned out for professional players after the new LoL patch and meta changes. Notably, all of its matches will feature the Fearless Draft format. That means if a champion is picked in a series, it will be banned in all subsequent games of that series. The first international tournament will also include the Fearless Draft.

The LCK CUP will have the following three rounds:

• Group Stage: Best-of-three
• Play-ins: Best-of-three/Finals are best-of-five
• Playoffs. Best-of-five

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Group Stage

In the Group Stage, there will be 10 LCK teams divided into two groups. Notably, the top two teams from the earlier season will be placed in a different group. These teams will also have the opportunity to select the others in their respective groups.

Each team will play cross-matches against the other group in a single round-robin format, and the combined results will be used to determine the Winner and the Loser group.

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Play-ins and Playoffs

The top three teams from the Winner group will directly book a seat in the Playoff Stage, while the other two teams will have to compete in the Play-in Stage. Furthermore, the top four teams from the Loser group will also compete in the Play-in Stage. Eventually, the top three teams from this stage will proceed to the Playoffs.

The Playoff Stage features a double-elimination format to crown the ultimate winner of the LCK CUP. The winner will also qualify for the first League of Legends international tournament in March.

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2) League of Legends LCK Regular Season

The LCK Regular Season will feature various stages throughout the year, including:

• Round 1-2: Best-of-three
• LCK Road to MSI: Best-of-five
• Round 3-5 (Group Stage): Best-of-three
• Play-ins: Best-of-five
• Playoffs: Best-of-five

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Round 1-2 and LCK Road to MSI

LCK Road to MSI will feature the King-of-the-Hill format (Image via LCK)

The first two rounds of the LCK Regular Season will essentially be the qualifying process for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). The top six teams will play the LCK Road to MSI, which features a 5-round King-of-the-Hill format. The top two teams will then book their spot in the MSI.

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Round 3-5 (Group Stage)

After the MSI is concluded, the 10 LCK teams will be divided into two groups based on their standings in the two previous rounds: Legend Group and Rise Group. Each team will play best-of-three matches only against others in their groups for the next three rounds.

Then, the top two teams from the Legend Group will directly qualify for Round 2 of the League of Legends LCK Playoffs, while the third and fourth-placed teams will proceed to Playoffs Round 1.

The fifth-placed team from the Legend Group and the top three teams from the Rise Group will play in the Play-in Stage. Unfortunately, the fourth and fifth-placed in the Rise Group will be eliminated from the LCK season.

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Play-ins and Playoffs

The Play-in Stage will boast best-of-five matches, and the top two teams from there will join the Playoff Stage. The remaining six teams will battle it out in the Playoff Stage's double-elimination format (best-of-five) for the LCK trophy.

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What is the qualifying process for League of Legends Worlds?

In contrast to earlier seasons of the LCK, there will be no LCK Regional qualifiers from 2025 to determine spots for the League of Legends Worlds. The qualification procedure will instead be established based on the final standings of the LCK Playoff Stage. The top three teams from the Playoffs will secure their places at Worlds, while the fourth seed will be determined by the MSI results.

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Check out more League of Legends news updates below:

• League of Legends patch 14.22 preview
• T1 beats Gen.G to reach the LoL Worlds 2024 Grand Final