The 2026 LCK regular season will begin on April 1st, with Hanwha Life Esports facing OKSavingsBank BRION before T1 and KT Rolster renew one of Korean League of Legends’ longest-running rivalries.

According to a release, Riot Games said the first and second rounds of the regular season will run for nine weeks at the LCK Arena inside Chijijik LoL Park in Seoul’s Jongno-gu district. The league will operate from Wednesday to Sunday, with two matches played each day.

The second series on opening day will see T1 take on KT Rolster, reviving the ‘telecom war’ fixture that has been one of the LCK’s most recognisable rivalries for years. The matchup also carries extra weight after the two teams met in the 2025 World Championship final, where T1 defeated KT Rolster in a full five-game series.

Riot’s release also highlighted T1’s historical edge in the head-to-head. It noted that the organisation holds an overall win rate of around 66.9% against KT Rolster and most recently defeated its rival in the 2026 LCK Cup after overturning a significant gold deficit in the deciding game.

Saturday Showdown to spotlight key LCK rivalries

Alongside the opening week slate, Riot Games confirmed that its Saturday Showdown series will again be used to showcase some of the season’s highest-profile matchups. The format places one featured series each Saturday in an effort to build rivalries and increase fan interest across the split.

In the opening week, T1 will face Hanwha Life Esports in the Saturday Showdown. Interest in that series is likely to be high following Hanwha Life’s roster changes, with former T1 top laner Choi ‘Zeus’ Woo-je and bot laner Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyeong now part of its line-up, according to the release.

Further headline matches are also scheduled later in the split. In week three, Hanwha Life Esports will play Gen.G, while on May 2nd, Gen.G will face Dplus KIA in another Saturday Showdown fixture. Riot’s release framed the latter as a chance for Dplus KIA to end a losing run against Gen.G that has stretched beyond three years.

Matches will be broadcast live on streaming platforms Chijijik and SOOP. Fans looking to attend in person will be able to purchase tickets through NOL Ticket, with bookings opening 48 hours before each match.