LCK – The prestigious League of Legends tournament in South Korea, will officially transition to a franchise system, eliminating the promotion and relegation system starting from the 2021 season. This means that to participate in the LCK, all teams will need to submit an application for approval, demonstrating their financial conditions and meeting certain tournament standards regarding salary caps and facilities.
As of now, all 10 teams confirmed to participate in the LCK Summer 2020 (including the recently promoted Team Dynamics) have submitted applications for the LCK 2021, and have been approved as they meet all the aforementioned requirements.
However, according to reports from Hanwang, South Korea, it appears that not only the 10 current LCK teams have applied for the 2021 season, but also an additional 5 lower-tier teams are making similar moves.
The issue here is whether these teams meet the requirements set forth, and they are fully qualified to participate in the LCK Spring 2021.
This has led the tournament organizers to consider the idea of expanding the scale of the LCK, similar to the approach taken by the Chinese League of Legends tournament – LPL. In the recent LPL Spring 2020, the tournament continued to expand from 16 to 17 participating teams, with the inclusion of the newcomer eStar.
Increasing the number of participating teams is seen as a promising step towards enhancing the scale and appeal of the LCK. However, the organizers will also need to carefully consider the scheduling and tournament structure, as well as prize pools…
Nevertheless, this is still just an initial plan; whether the LCK will expand from 10 to 15 teams depends on many other factors. However, from the perspective of the media and the fan community in South Korea, this idea seems worth experimenting with, considering the potential to create a top-tier platform for young talents in League of Legends in Korea.