News
T1's Lee "Faker" Sang-hyuk publicly expressed his concerns about the LCK Cup 2026 format during his stream after the DRX vs. Hanwha Life Esports match, arguing that the system allows teams with perfect records to miss out on direct playoff qualification.
The situation has drawn attention, as even unbeaten teams in the Baron Group can be forced to go through the Play-In phase, while teams with weaker results than the opposing group can qualify directly. This creates a rare scenario where winning all your matches does not guarantee the best possible position on the leaderboard.
Group Stage – Group Phase
In this phase the 10 groups are divided into two groups of five teams (usually referred to as Group Baron and Group Elder). They do not play each other in the same group — all group stage matches are crossovers, meaning each team faces all the groups of the other group once.
Matches in the Group Stage are played with the system Fearless Draft, where any champion selected in a series cannot be selected again in that series — a change that enhances strategic variety and competitive level.
The first ones two weeks (Week 1 & Week 2) is in Best-of-Three (Bo3) series, with each victory giving 1 point.
Η third week, known as “Super Week”, is in Best-of-Five (Bo5) series and every win this week counts 2 points for the overall score.
At the end of the Group Stage, the group with the most total points is called the “Winner Group” and the other is done “Loser Group”. The classification within each group determines the course of the teams to the next phases.
Qualifications after the Group Stage
Depending on the final ranking order, the teams are promoted as follows:
Straight to the Playoffs:
• The 2 first teams by Winner Group.
• H first team by Loser Group.
In the Play-In Stage:
• The finishing teams 3rd–5th in Winner Group.
• The finishing teams 2nd–4th in Loser Group.
Exclusion:
• The finishing team last in Loser Group does not continue in the rest of the tournament.
Play-In Stage
The phase Play-In brings together six teams that did not directly qualify for the Playoffs and are playing for the last spots in the main bracket. Depending on the exact design implemented, matches in this phase usually combine Best-of-Three and Best-of-Five series and create a small qualifying tournament before the Playoffs.
Playoffs – Final Bracket
They participate in the Playoffs phase six groups:
• The three who qualified directly (2 from Winner Group + 1 from Loser Group).
• The three that came through the Play-In.
Playoffs are held with Double Elimination bracket — meaning teams have a margin of one loss before they are outright eliminated — and all series are Best-of-Five (Bo5), also with Fearless Draft.
What event does it refer to and what effect does it have?
Both T1 and Gen.G are currently 4–0 in the Baron Group and have the potential to finish the stage with an outright 5–0. However, the Elder Group has accumulated more total points, meaning that only one of the two leading Baron teams would secure direct playoff qualification. If KT Rolster beats Nongshim RedForce, Elder's lead will become irreversible, forcing either T1 or Gen.G to go through the Play-In round.
There is also the possibility that Nongshim will suffer another loss and risk an early elimination, although they will theoretically remain in the game, depending on the results of other teams against T1 and Gen.G.
Faker's review brings back the structure of the LCK Cup and how players perceive competitive fairness. His comments highlight a growing concern that the current system may be rewarding group balance more than pure win-loss results. With playoff qualification likely to be decided by outside factors, this debate could influence future decisions on changes to the format of the next LCK events.
