2025 LCK season

Prior to the Final of the 2025 First Stand Tournament on 16 March, Riot Games announced that Fearless Draft would continue to be used throughout the rest of the year, including with the LCK, instead of being exclusively used during the LCK Cup and First Stand.^[6]

Across nine weeks of competition, ten (10) competing teams participated in a double round-robin tournament, where all matches were played in best-of-threes, similar to the most-recent format for the Spring and Summer Splits of previous LCK seasons. The top six teams from these rounds participated in Road to MSI, with all matches being best-of-five. The top two (2) ranked teams from the first two rounds of the season contested the region's first seed at the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational. The four (4) remaining teams were seeded in a five-round single-elimination king-of-the hill tournament, with the fifth and sixth-ranked teams beginning in round one; the fourth-ranked team seeded in round two, and the third-ranked team seeded in round three. The loser of the first-seed playoff was relegated to the fifth round, in which the winner of such will earn the LCK's second seed at MSI 2025.^[2] Since the sole representative of the LCK at the First Stand Tournament, Hanwha Life Esports, won the entire event, the two teams that earned the LCK's two slots at MSI 2025 got byes to the Bracket Stage, skipping the Play-in Stage entirely.

On 24 March 2025, the LCK announced that the final three matches of Road to MSI will be held at the Sajik Arena in Busan from 13–15 June.^[7][8] The venue had previously hosted the quarterfinals and semifinals of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship.

KT Rolster and Dplus Kia had tiebreaker match on 4 June to determine the 5th and 6th seeds in Road to MSI. KT Rolster won the match with a 2-1 scoreline to secure the fifth seed and the last spot in Legend Group for Rounds 3-5.

On 7 March 2025, Gen.G and KT Rolster announced that two separate matches featuring their teams would be held at the Suwon Convention Center [ko] from 3–4 May, as part of a two-day "2025 LCK Road Show". Gen.G faced Dplus Kia on 3 May as part of the Gen.G Homestand event, while a match between KT Rolster and T1 was held during the KT Homecoming event on the next day.^[9]

Based on the standings from the first two rounds of the season, the ten (10) competing teams were ranked and divided into two groups – Legend Group (consisting of the top five teams) and Rise Group (consisting of the bottom five teams), with their first two rounds' records carried over. Each team in their respective groups played a triple round robin where all matches were played in best-of-threes. The top two (2) teams from the legend group directly advanced to the second round of playoffs, while the next two ranked teams (3rd and 4th) qualified for the first round of playoffs. The fifth-ranked team from the legend group and the top three (3) teams from the rise group were placed in the play-ins, and the bottom two (2) teams of said group were eliminated.^[10]

In a double-elimination format, the four (4) teams participated in the play-in stage, where winners of the first two series advanced to the winners bracket, while losing teams were relegated to the losers bracket. The two winners of the first two series faced each other, with the winning team securing the fifth seed in the playoffs. The losing team of the fifth-seed playoff was relegated to the 6th-place playoff, in which the winner of said series clinched the sixth seed.^[2]

The six (6) remaining teams contested the playoffs in a double-elimination format, where all matches were played in best-of-fives. The top four (4) teams from the playoffs qualified for the 2025 League of Legends World Championship, as an additional slot was unlocked based on the region's performance at MSI 2025. The winner of the LCK Finals was crowned the Season Champion.^[10]

Venues

• LoL Park, Seoul (Upper Round 1 to Lower Round 3)
• Inspire Arena, Incheon (Lower Bracket Final and Finals)