The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) will divide its 2025 regular season into two separate groups for the first time in its 14-year history, with the Rounds 3–5 bracket opening on Wednesday, July 23, and the championship match set for Sunday, September 28. Riot Games’ Korean professional league confirmed that the season’s final showdown will determine both the LCK titleholder and the region’s top seeds for the League of Legends World Championship.

Following a unified double round-robin format in Rounds 1–2 from March through early July, the top five teams by win-loss record will comprise the new Legend Group, while the remaining five will form the Rise Group. Within each group, squads will face one another three times in best-of-three series over six weeks, with match days running Wednesday through Sunday and each team appearing twice per week.

The Legend Group features Gen.G, Hanwha Life Esports, T1, Nongshim RedForce and kt Rolster, while the Rise Group is made up of Dplus KIA, BNK PEARX, OK Savings Bank Brion, DRX and DNS Freaks. The opening matches of Round 3 will pit Dplus KIA against OK Savings Bank Brion in the Rise bracket, followed by an undefeated Gen.G squad at 18–0 taking on 14–4 Hanwha Life Esports in the Legend bracket.

Eight teams will advance to the postseason: the top two in the Legend Group earn byes into the second round of the double-elimination Playoffs, while third and fourth place in Legend enter the first round. Legend’s fifth-place team joins the top three Rise teams in a four-team Play-In stage scheduled for September 3–7. The winners will advance to the Playoffs, which begin September 10 and conclude with the championship on September 28.

The Playoffs champion secures the LCK’s first seed for Worlds, with the runner-up and final qualifier taking the second and third seeds. Depending on performances at the Mid-Season Invitational in Vancouver, a fourth Worlds berth may be awarded to the fourth-place Playoff finisher.