LCK 2025 Road to MSI Preview

Korea has finally entered its playoffs to determine the two teams that will represent the region at the Mid-Season Invitational. Unlike other leagues, the LCK will be running a different format where the top 2 teams will immediately play for one MSI spot with the loser waiting at the end of the gauntlet for a shot at the final spot as well. So after some surprising results in the final few weeks of the round robin, let’s take a look at the six teams competing to represent Korea at MSI. 

Season H2H:
GEN 2-0 LCK Cup Group Stage
HLE 3-2 LCK Cup Playoffs Round 2
HLE 3-2 LCK Cup Playoffs Finals
GEN 2-0 Round 1 Round Robin
GEN 2-1 Round 2 Round Robin

The first qualification match will feature what has become the marquee matchup of the LCK in Gen.G and HLE. So far, the trend that has emerged is that Gen.G will typically dominate the best of 3 matches between the two teams but best of 5s are a lot closer between the two teams with HLE picking up the win in their last three meetings in such a setting. 

With that being said, Gen.G is in a prime position to put an end to HLE’s little streak, as the team has looked almost unbeatable after a perfect series record through two round-robins, dropping only 5 games in total. While it’s easy to go down the roster and sing the praises of every player, one player that does need to be pointed out is support player Duro.

At the start of the season, there was a ton of doubt about Duro replacing Lehends in an all-star roster. The organization seemingly has an uncanny ability to level up any support player and make them world-class as Duro has constantly improved throughout the season thus far and has one of the best supports in the region heading into playoffs. All in all, this Gen.G roster have significantly leveled up since the LCK Cup and should be the favorite to win MSI, barring any massive upsets that prevent them from qualifying for the event. 

On the other side of things, HLE enters the qualification match with a few bruises. After dominating First Stand, HLE has remained mostly dominant, but not quite at the level of Gen.G. In fact, players like jungler Peanut and bot laner Viper have been somewhat inconsistent and struggling from time to time. Their struggles eventually caught up to them in week 7 and 8 as 3 straight series defeats at the hands of KT Rolster, Gen.G, and Dplus KIA put the team at potential risk of losing their 2nd seed heading into the final week. While the team was able to clean up mistakes and hold on to their spot in the first qualification round, it’s clear that they’ll be coming into the series as the clear underdog despite recent history being on their side. 

While Gen.G should be the favorites heading into this match, recent results in other regions have shown us that things don’t always go as expected and considering HLE record in best of 5s, it’s hard to count them out. Regardless of who wins, the losing team should still be the overwhelming favorite to take the second seed for MSI against the rest of the field. 

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Season H2H:
DK 2-0 Round 1 Round Robin
KT 2-0 Round 2 Round Robin
KT 2-1 Tiebreaker

The first match of the gauntlet portion of the playoffs will feature two teams that started on opposite ends of the spectrum to start the season but have somehow ended up in the same place.

Let’s start with KT, who started the season with a fairly mediocre showing at LCK Cup which translated into a 3-7 start in the double round robin. But like any good roller coaster, it has to go up again at some point and a 6 series win streak is about as good of an ascent as one could hope for. Aside from mid laner Bdd continuing to be one of the best players in his position, KT’s success in the latter half of the round robin can be attributed to the team figuring out how to best use bot laner deokdam and the huge improvements made by top laner PerfecT.

Thanks to the strides the team made during the round-robin, KT was able to sneak into the Legend Group for Rounds 3-5 after winning the tiebreaker match. Although they may not secure many wins against the rest of the Legend Group going forward, it’ll help the team continue to make significant improvements as the season progresses, and it’ll be interesting to see what the ceiling of this roster can be.

Next, there’s DK, who started off the double round robin by building on their strong showing at LCK Cup with a 5-1 record after 3 weeks of play. After a great start, the team took a massive nosedive and ended up losing 6 straight games and plummeted down the standings. While the team struggled as a whole, mid laner Showmaker has been a key player that has notably struggled the most considering the expectations for him. Despite Showmaker’s struggles, the young players of the team in top laner Siwoo and jungler Lucid have still continued to level up since last season.

Although the team has somewhat found its form in recent weeks, DK will unfortunately be playing in the rise group going into Rounds 3-5. However, this could be a blessing in disguise for the team, as playing against weaker competition could be the confidence boost the team needs to make a potential deep run for Worlds later this season. This, hopefully, will start with a better showing against KT in the best-of-5 rematch. 

At the end of the day, despite KT winning the tiebreaker match, it’s hard to give them the advantage going into the rematch. In the end, the fact of the matter is DK has been fairly inconsistent throughout the double round robin but can still be one of the best teams in Korea on any given day while KT is KT to put it simply and if these two teams played each other 100 times, the score would probably end up being 50-50 at the end of it. No matter what happens though, this will surely be a very fun (and chaotic) series to watch the two teams run it back once again. 

Making up the very red middle rounds of the gauntlet are the 4th seeded Nongshim RedForce and then 3rd seed T1. 

Starting off with Nongshim who made their own path to the 4th seed a bit harder than they needed. So far through the first two round robins of the season, Nongshim has been responsible for DN Freecs’ one and only series win. Despite this, the team has looked strong coming into the playoffs, which they clinched in the final week of play with a shocking 2-0 victory over the aforementioned T1.

A large part of their success has been thanks to support Lehends, who has helped improve the team’s overall macros throughout the season. While the team lacks the star power of the other teams in the playoffs outside of Lehends and top laner Kingen, the team’s overall performance has been impressive, as it feels like they’ve been constantly punching above their weight class at times. Although they’re not favorites to qualify for MSI, a strong showing here could help snowball the team to a spot at Worlds later this year. 

Then there’s T1, who has had a less-than-ideal season so far. After the departure of top laner Zeus and the controversies that followed due in part to CEO Joe Marsh’s accusations as well as his decision to overrule the coaching staff’s decision by reinstating bot laner Gumayusi back into the start lineup over rookie Smash, the team struggled for most of the season thus far to establish a proper team identity.

Eventually, the team was able to figure it out with Guma as the starting bot laner for the foreseeable future as they held on to a strong position for most of the double round robin. Unfortunately, results against the top teams have not improved, as they still struggle to defeat either Gen.G or HLE, despite some close series. T1 has also had some notable losses, such as the aforementioned loss to Nongshim, as well as losses to BNK FEARX and OKSavingsBank BRION. While jungler Oner has been thriving on carry junglers and top laner Doran has been able to integrate himself within the team fully and showing some return to form, the team is still clearly a level below Gen.G and HLE.

The reality is that while the team’s floor is still relatively high, the loss of Zeus has drastically lowered their ceiling. As a result, it’s hard to imagine T1  being able to reach a level where they can take a series against the other two top teams. Of course, as long as T1 reaches Worlds, it’ll be hard to count them out until they’re fully eliminated, but surely some fans miss seeing the team lifting up an LCK title from time to time. 

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Road to MSI is set to begin on the night of June 6th, and the two qualification matches will take place on June 13th and 14th. To find the schedule for specific matches and to find out when matches begin in your timezone, check the lolesports website. Otherwise, you can catch the matches on LCK Global’s official Twitch or Youtube.