League of Legends Champions Korea


League of Legends Champions Korea, commonly abbreviated as LCK, is the primary competition for League of Legends esports in South Korea. Contested by ten teams, the league runs two seasons per year and serves as a direct route to qualification for the annual League of Legends World Championship. The LCK is administered in cooperation between Riot Games and KeSPA.
The league was formerly named League of Legends Champions before undergoing a major restructuring in late 2014, which saw a change in the competition's format and a rebranding to its current name. OGN reserved exclusive broadcasting rights of the league until 2016 when rights were split with SPOTV Games. In 2019, Riot Games took over the broadcasting of LCK.
The LCK is widely considered to be the strongest League of Legends competition in the world, with the game's World Championship having been won by teams from the league from through 2017; 2018 was the first season since 2013 where a team from the LCK did not win the World Championship. T1 are the current champions of the LCK, winning their ninth title on 25 April 2020 after beating Gen.G in the finals of the LCK Spring Split 2020.

History

Pre-LCK era (2012–2014)

Following the launch of South Korea's League of Legends server in December 2011, cable broadcaster OnGameNet launched the country's first major League of Legends tournament in March 2012. Named The Champions Spring 2012, the tournament ran from March to May and was contested by a total of 16 teams. MiG Blaze was crowned the competition's inaugural champion after defeating their organizational sibling team MiG Frost in the finals. The Champions Summer 2012 followed later that year, with a rebranded MiG Frost, now known as Azubu Frost, claiming the title themselves. Azubu Frost, along with NaJin Sword, went on to represent South Korea in their first appearance at the in October.
A tri-tournament annual circuit was soon set as the norm for the league's calendar year, now consisting of three seasons held in the winter, spring, and summer. Azubu Frost and NaJin Sword clashed early in 2013 in the finals of Champions Winter 2012-13, with the latter emerging victorious. Champions Spring 2013 and Champions Summer 2013 later followed, being won by MVP Ozone and SK Telecom T1 K respectively. SK Telecom T1 K went on to win the later that year, becoming the first team from the league to do so.
SK Telecom T1 K became the first team to successfully defend their title the following year, sweeping Samsung Galaxy Ozone in the finals of Champions Winter 2013-14 to cap off an undefeated tournament run. Ozone's sibling team, Samsung Galaxy Blue, went on to win Champions Spring 2014 but were bested in the finals of Champions Summer 2014 by kt Rolster Arrows.
In October 2014, plans were announced for a drastic overhaul of the league's structure. League of Legends Champions was rebranded to League of Legends Champions Korea , and the winter season was abolished in favor of an annual circuit consisting of the Spring Split and Summer Split. The competition's format, which consisted of a 16-team tournament with a group stage progressing into a knockout stage, was changed to a 10-team league operating on a round-robin basis, with the top 5 teams qualifying for a playoffs bracket. Furthermore, organizations were prohibited from owning more than one team - in particular, this change most heavily affected KeSPA-affiliated teams, all of which operated two squads as part of a sibling team system - forcing numerous organizations to merge or disband rosters.

LCK era (2015–present)

LCK Spring 2015 marked the debut of the league operating under its new format and identity. A newly minted SK Telecom T1, a product of the prior year's merger between SK Telecom T1 K and SK Telecom T1 S, swept the calendar year by winning both LCK Spring 2015 and LCK Summer 2015.
SK Telecom T1 retained their crown in LCK Spring 2016, becoming the first team in competition history to win three consecutive titles. Their streak of dominance was ended in LCK Summer 2016 by ROX Tigers, who became only the second team to win the league since its restructuring.
SK Telecom T1 won their sixth title as an organization on 22 April 2017, by defeating KT Rolster in the finals of LCK Spring 2017. In LCK Summer 2017 Finals, Longzhu Gaming won their first title on 26 August 2017 after defeating the spring winner SK Telecom T1.
Longzhu Gaming rebranded to Kingzone DragonX following the 2017 World Championship, and they defended their title in LCK 2018 Spring by defeating the Afreeca Freecs. kt Rolster won the LCK Summer 2018 championship, defeating Griffin in the finals.
SK Telecom T1 won the title for LCK Spring 2019 after defeating Griffin in the finals with 3–0. This marked the seventh LCK title for SK Telecom T1. On August 31, 2019, SK Telecom T1 once again defeated Griffin in the finals with a score of 3–1. This was their eighth championship title, and also their back-to-back LCK title in 2019.

Results

By season

By team

TeamWinnersRunners-upWinning SeasonsRunners-up Seasons
T1912013 Summer, 2013–14 Winter, 2015 Spring, 2015 Summer, 2016 Spring, 2017 Spring, 2019 Spring, 2019 Summer, 2020 Spring2017 Summer
KT Rolster242014 Summer, 2018 Summer2013 Summer, 2015 Summer, 2016 Summer, 2017 Spring
OGN Entus232012 Spring, 2012 Summer2012 Spring, 2012–13 Winter, 2013 Spring
Gen.G232013 Spring, 2014 Spring2013–14 Winter, 2014 Summer, 2020 Spring
DragonX202017 Summer, 2018 Spring
Hanwha Life Esports122016 Summer2015 Spring, 2016 Spring
Brion Blade112012–13 Winter2014 Spring
Afreeca Freecs012018 Spring
Griffin032018 Summer, 2019 Spring, 2019 Summer
CLG Europe012012 Summer

Broadcast talent

Korean

English

Format

Overview

Regular season