After a nearly three month offseason, the LCK is finally making its 2019 return.
Set to make its 2019 debut on Jan. 16, the LCK looks a lot different from where we last left it in September. The LCK 2019 Spring Split will be the first split fully produced by Riot Games following the departure of OGN and SPOTV. And with this production change comes a new LCK venue in LoL Park.
But the production isn’t the only part of the LCK that has changed. The LCK has gained two new teams since KT’s Rolster domestic crowning in summer, in addition to many of the legacy teams including KT making major roster changes during the offseason. In order to not miss a second of the LCK Spring Split, here’s how to watch all the action.
Stream
As per usual, the LCK Spring Split’s English Broadcast will be streamed on Riot’s LCK-focused Twitch channel. In addition to Twitch, the English broadcast will make its debut 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 will be returning from the previous seasonal 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, beginning on Wednesday, and ending on Sunday. Come March, the schedule will shorten to four days, however, with Wednesday no longer being a match day.
The LCK Spring Split regular season will span over 10 weeks, with 45 broadcast days. More days will be announced later on in the split to accommodate for the Spring Split playoffs. Each broadcast day will feature two best-of-three matches. LCK broadcast’s 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 through the Spring Split’s 10 week regular season. The team’s which end the regular season in a top five position in the standings will qualify for the LCK Spring Split playoffs. The two worst performing regular season teams on the other hand will be forced to 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 feature a gauntlet system, where teams’ seeding is based off 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 following 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, with the winner moving on to face the first placed team in the LCK Spring Split finals.
The team to lift the spring trophy will not only be crowned the champions of Korea, but will earn the right to represent the region at the Mid-Season International.
