The 2025 League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) regular season is about to begin. This year, the league will operate as a single season rather than being divided into two splits, with ten teams competing for the championship title. Hanwha Life Esports is considered the most likely team to win.
On Wednesday, LCK hosted a media day event at LoL Park in Jongno-gu, Seoul, inviting coaches and players from all ten teams ahead of the season’s April 2 start.
Having won the first LCK Cup of the year and the international First Stand Tournament, Hanwha Life Esports has become the team to beat.
When asked to name the strongest title contender, eight of the ten teams chose Hanwha Life Esports, and Hanwha Life and Dplus KIA each pointed to T1 as their top pick to win.
Hanwha Life’s Peanut (Han Wang Ho) said, “With lane swapping removed, I think T1 will stand out.”
Starting this year, LCK represents South Korea in the newly reorganized League of Legends pro esports ecosystem, which now includes five major regions: Korea, China, North America–Latin America–Brazil, Europe–Middle East–Africa, and Asia Pacific.
LCK has won the World Championship—a global League of Legends tournament featuring the top teams worldwide—nine times, solidifying its status as the top-tier LoL league worldwide.
LCK has shifted from its former Spring and Summer Split format to a continuous regular season throughout the year. Only one team will be crowned the “LCK Champion” annually.
The LCK regular season consists of Rounds 1 and 2, beginning on April 2, and Rounds 3, 4, and 5, starting on July 23.
Rounds 1 and 2 will be played in a best-of-three double round-robin format. The top six teams will qualify for the LCK Road to MSI, where two teams will be selected to participate in the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).
In Rounds 3 through 5, teams will be split into two groups based on their performance in Rounds 1 and 2. Each group will compete in a best-of-three triple round-robin format.
Based on the final regular season standings, the top seven teams will advance to the Play-In and Playoff stages. The bottom three teams will end their season at that point. Teams qualifying for the World Championship will be determined by their final playoff standings without additional qualifiers.
This year’s LCK regular season will officially introduce the Fearless Draft system. Under this format, teams cannot pick champions selected in previous sets during the same series.
The first-place team in the LCK regular season will receive approximately 300 million KRW ($205,000) in prize money. The second-place team will earn about 150 million KRW ($102,000), followed by 75 million KRW ($52,000) for third place and 37.5 million KRW ($25,600) for fourth.
