Riot Games’ League Champions Korea is home to many of the world’s most illustrious League of Legends professional players.
Formed in 2014 as the successor to OnGameNet’s seasonal tournaments, the LCK has continued its predecessor’s legacy of breeding World Championship teams. Considered League of Legends’ most distinguished regional league, the LCK is host to many exciting high-level matches.
But with so many matches to follow, and set across the globe from Western viewers, the LCK can be a difficult region to follow. Have no fear though, here is how to watch all the action.
Stream
Although they were moved to a separate page two years ago, both OGN and SPOTV’s English LCK broadcasts have returned to Riot’s official Twitch channel. For those who would like to watch OGN and SPOTV’s native Korean LCK broadcasts, Riot has created a separate Twitch channel that runs concurrently with the English stream.
Teams
Like the NA and EU LCS, Riot’s LCK features 10 teams, which face each other twice over the course of a multi-month seasonal split. The teams competing in the current LCK Summer Split include:
- KT Rolster
- Gen.G
- SK Telecom T1
- Jin Air Green Wings
- KINGZONE DragonX
- Hanwha Life Esports
- Afreeca Freecs
- bbq Olivers
- MVP
- Griffin
Schedule
Usually a 10-week league, the current LCK Summer Split has been condensed to eight weeks to allow players the ability to compete in the 2018 Asian Games. Unlike the NA and EU LCS, Riot’s LCK runs throughout the week, with only Mondays being without games.
LCK broadcasts begin at 5pm KST or 3am CT, and feature two nightly matches. The only exception to this schedule is Tuesday, when the LCK hosts three matches, which begin at 2pm KST or 12am CT.
OGN and SPOTV split LCK broadcasts, with OGN producing Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday’s matches, while SPOTV gets Sunday and Monday’s games. Friday’s LCK broadcasts are rotated back and forth between SPOTV and OGN.
System
The LCK functions as a two seasonal split league, and features a double round-robin format. Teams face each other twice in best-of-three matches over the course of a seasonal split’s regular season. The teams that end the regular season in the standings’ top five qualify for that split’s playoffs. Conversely, the two worst-placing teams of that split drop to the promotion tournament, where they fight to keep their spot in the league against Korea’s top two challenger teams.
The LCK playoffs employ a gauntlet system, where teams are seeded based on how they finished the regular season. Playoffs begin with the fourth and fifth placed teams facing off in the first round, called the “wildcard match.” The winner of the wildcard match then versus the league’s third placed team in the second round, with the winner moving up to the third round and playing the second place team. Finally, the winner of the second round qualifies for the LCK finals, where they play the team ranked first at the time.
The team that wins the LCK playoffs qualifies for the following Riot sanctioned international event, whether it be the Mid-Season Invitational or World Championship.
