The LCK is making its return after a three-month offseason. It will debut on Jan. 16 with a lot of changes. Riot Games is now fully producing the LCK following the departure of OGN and SPOTV. The venue for the LCK has also changed to LoL Park.
There have been changes in teams and rosters as well. Two new teams have joined the LCK, along with many of the legacy teams making major roster changes. To make sure you don’t miss any of the LCK Spring Split, here’s how to watch all the action.
Stream
The LCK Spring Split’s English Broadcast will be streamed on Riot’s LCK-focused Twitch channel. It will also be available on Facebook’s streaming platform. The English broadcast team includes Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith, Max “Atlus” Anderson, Brendan Valdes, and Nick “LS” De Cesare.
The LCK native Korean broadcast will be available through the SBS Afreeca Korean television channel, as well as the Naver, Afreeca TV, and Facebook streaming services, with Twitch yet to be announced.
Teams
The LCK 2019 Spring Split will feature 10 teams, eight of which are returning from the previous split. The teams competing in the current LCK Spring Split include:
- Afreeca Freecs
- DAMWON Gaming
- Gen.G
- Griffin
- Hanwha Life Esports
- Jin Air Green Wings
- KINGZONE DragonX
- KT Rolster
- SANDBOX Gaming
- SK Telecom T1
Schedule
The LCK Spring Split will run on a five-day schedule, starting on Wednesday and ending on Sunday. Starting from March, the schedule will be shortened to four days, with no matches on Wednesdays.
The LCK Spring Split regular season will span over 10 weeks, with 45 broadcast days. More days will be announced later in the split to accommodate the Spring Split playoffs. Each broadcast day will feature two best-of-three matches. LCK broadcasts will begin at 5pm KST or 2am CT, with the second match scheduled for 8pm KST, or 5am CT.
System
The LCK Spring Split regular season will feature a double round-robin. Teams will face off against each other twice in best-of-three matches over the 10-week regular season. The top five teams in the standings will qualify for the LCK Spring Split playoffs. The two worst-performing teams will enter the promotion tournament, where they will fight to retain their spot in the league against Korea’s two best challenger teams.
The LCK playoffs follow a gauntlet system, where teams’ seeding is based on their regular season placing. The fourth and fifth place teams play in a special best-of-three wildcard match, with the winner moving on to play the third place team in the official first round of playoffs. Every round after the wildcard match is played in a best-of-five format.
The winner of the first round moves on to play the second-placed team, and the winner of that match moves on to face the first-placed team in the LCK Spring Split finals.
The team that wins the spring trophy will be crowned the champions of Korea and will earn the right to represent the region at the Mid-Season International.