LCK Makes Significant Changes
Recently, just as the 2024 World Championship has yet to conclude, LCK has made a surprising shift. Specifically, according to an announcement from the official LCK fanpage, starting in 2025, the tournament will no longer be divided into Spring and Summer splits. Instead, fans will welcome two new tournaments. One, called the LCK Cup, will take place over a short period, around early in the year, and conclude before March to select teams for Riot’s international tournament. The other, named the LCK Regular Season, will run from April to September to determine the teams that will attend MSI and Worlds.
The new format will separate the LCK Cup as a subsidiary tournament, unrelated to the following LCK Regular Season. Additionally, the LCK Regular Season will include a phase called MSI Qualified where teams will compete for spots at MSI after Rounds 1-2 of this tournament conclude. Thus, LCK has eliminated the familiar representative selection format for MSI based on Spring results.
Moreover, after MSI concludes, teams will continue to compete from Rounds 3-5 to select representatives for the Playoffs. LCK will be divided into two groups (named Legend and Rise) to determine the teams advancing to the playoffs. The top 5 teams from the Legend group and 3 teams from the Rise group will proceed to the knockout stage competing for the championship as well as 4 spots at Worlds.
Another change is that the LCK Cup will implement the Fearless Draft format that was introduced in LPL and LCK Challengers in 2024. The LCK organizers also acknowledged: if a match goes to BO5, there will be 50 champions banned (including 10 champions per match, and 40 champions banned in the previous 4 matches). This is a new change, as the previous Fearless Draft usually reset all previously banned champions to give teams more options.
Fearless Draft may be tested before being applied in the main tournament.
Speculation About LCK Changes Influenced by Faker
It can be said that the new schedule will be somewhat lighter, with only one main tournament and matches potentially spaced out more. According to some opinions, it seems that Faker’s injuries may have contributed to this significant change in LCK. Although the Fearless Draft (like in LPL) or a subsidiary tournament has been in place for a long time (LEC, LCS), no major region has dared to completely abolish the Spring-Summer system like LCK is doing.
While the number of tournaments may increase (4-5), some tournaments like the LCK Cup may serve as a warm-up event with a less intense nature. Subsequently, the winning team will participate in Riot’s new international tournament. However, MSI and Worlds will still be the primary focus. This can also be seen as an opportunity for teams to experiment with new strategies or to promote young players to gain experience.
Additionally, the Fearless Draft may bring positive effects. Fans are already tired of seeing teams play with predictable champion bans and picks. Gen.G, in particular, has often had uncreative bans and picks, gradually losing the necessary boldness. Even in their loss to T1, fans knew Gen.G would bring out Canyon’s Nidalee or counter Chovy, simply banning Smolder + Yone would suffice.
Furthermore, with LCK teams facing financial difficulties, expanding some tournaments, both for experimentation and to provide teams with additional prize money, is an effective solution. Moreover, as long as the organizers manage the schedule to prevent player overload, it can be considered a success.
The LCK in 2025 will be very different, but these are changes that fans are eagerly awaiting to see the results of when officially implemented, with the hope of completely transforming the LCK in the future.