The LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs will be a significant challenge for T1 and a rare opportunity for DPlus, KT Rolster, and HLE – Playoffs Preview

• The LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs will run from August 23 to September 8.
• Six teams will compete in the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs, including Gen.G, T1, HLE, DPlus KIA, FearX, and KT Rolster.
• The winner of the LCK Summer 2024 will earn a spot at Worlds 2024.

The 2024 League of Legends competitive season is slowly but steadily approaching the main event of the year – Worlds 2024, where teams from all regions, including the LCK, will qualify. I would even say especially from the LCK, which has received 3 slots for Worlds in 2024.

Before the start of the League of Legends World Championship at the end of September, we have plenty of high-class League action to look forward to, and perhaps the best place to watch professional LoL matches before Worlds will be the LCK Summer. The LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs are about to begin, and they promise to be a true spectacle. Let’s get ready for the start of the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs and prepare for possibly unpredictable circumstances from August 23 to September 8.

LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs Entities: Dates, Format, Schedule, Participants

If you’re looking to watch the best from League of Legends, mark the following dates on your calendar: August 23 – September 8. That’s when the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs will take place.

In the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs, we will be watching 6 teams. Here are the clubs that have made it to the main stage of this competitive region.

LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs Format

In the competitive ecosystem of League of Legends, Riot Games constantly experiments with formats, and over the years of running regional leagues, each of them has developed its own unique format. In the LCK, the format is one of the simplest, which also applies to the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs.

The main feature of the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs is that teams can choose their opponents. Here’s how it works:

• 6 teams advance to the playoffs, where starting from the second round, they play in a Double-Elimination format.
• The top 2 teams, in the case of the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs, Gen.G and Hanwha Life Esports, advance directly to the second round of the playoffs, guaranteeing a top 4 finish.
• The winner of the LCK Summer 2024 regular season, Gen.G, and the 3rd place team, DPlus KIA, get to choose their opponents for the first playoff match.

Thus, the regular season in the LCK Summer 2024 carried weight precisely because of the opponent selection mechanic in the playoffs. As a result, we have the first pairs for the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs, but we will only learn the opponents of Gen.G and Hanwha Life Esports during the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs matches.

LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs Schedule

Since the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs is a major event with a high-stakes reward, every match here matters. That’s why only 1 match will be played per day, starting on August 23.

The LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs will begin on August 23 with the match between DPlus KIA and FearX, followed by the match between T1 and KT Rolster. Only after these games will Gen.G choose their opponents from among the winners of the previous pairs, while HLE will face whoever is left.

LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs Participants and Their Chances to Win

Despite the high level of play in the region, the LCK cannot be called a highly competitive region. Essentially, the participants of the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs are the teams expected to be there, with perhaps the only exception being FearX, who barely made it to the main stage.

Clubs like Gen.G, T1, DPlus KIA, KT Rolster, and HLE regularly reach the main stages of regional championships, and it’s among them that the real competition takes place. Although, perhaps it used to, because now in South Korea there is a monumental club that is hard to beat, namely Gen.G, who in the 2024 season are aiming for the Golden Road (winning both LCK splits and both Riot international tournaments – MSI and Worlds).

Gen.G have been and remain the main favorites of the LCK Summer 2024 and are very likely to win the LCK Summer 2024 split. However, for the other participants in the final stage of the LCK Summer 2024, this is more of a plus than a minus. The fact is that Gen.G have already secured their spot at Worlds 2024, as they are the MSI champions, which means that the Worlds 2024 slot for winning the LCK will go to the 2nd place team in the LCK Summer 2024 if Gen.G wins.

So, if we take the very likely victory of Gen.G as a benchmark, the rest of the top teams have a real chance, and all they need to do is reach the grand final of the LCK Summer 2024. And while it may sound simple in theory, you literally need to win 2 series, but in reality, it’s a task with an asterisk.

Struggles of T1 at LCK

The main contender for victory after Gen.G is, of course, T1. I don’t think it’s necessary to explain why, but it’s definitely worth questioning T1’s ability to win. This isn’t just cheap hype; it’s based on the real conditions of the greatest League of Legends team of all time.

The thing is, while T1 is the most successful team on the international LoL stage, they are absolutely the second team in their home region: the last time they won the LCK was in the spring of 2022, which was 4 LCK tournaments ago. Since then, T1’s maximum has been 2nd place, almost always with uninspired and one-sided performances (only at LCK Spring 2024 did T1 take 2 games from Gen.G, while in previous LCK tournaments the finals ended with scores of 1-3 or 0-3 not in T1’s favor). I’m afraid the situation won’t change much in the LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs.

In the regular season of LCK Summer 2024, T1 finished 4th, which was due to Faker’s illness and overall not the most confident play. Also, probably the mental state of T1’s main star Faker, who literally hit his head against a wall after losing one of the matches.

After a less-than-stellar performance in the regional season and, to put it mildly, strange behavior, Faker has taken to SoloQue, but whether this will be enough to overcome their eternal rival Gen.G remains an open question.

LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs: HLE, KT Rolster, and DPlus KIA’s time to shine

While Gen.G have already secured their spot at Worlds 2024 and Faker is banging his head against the wall, other top teams have a chance to qualify for the main tournament of the year. Among them are HLE, KT Rolster, and DPlus KIA.

• HLE – finished 2nd in the LCK Summer 2024 regular season with a 14-4 record, defeatingT1
• DPlus KIA – finished 3rd in the LCK Summer 2024 regular season, defeating KT Rolster
• KT Rolster – finished 5th in the LCK Summer 2024 regular season, the only team to defeat Gen.G in the LCK Summer 2024 regular season.

Each of these clubs is aiming to qualify for Worlds 2024, and given all the circumstances above, they can do so by reaching the final (assuming Gen.G is there).

LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs Summary

The LCK Summer 2024 Playoffs will take place from August 23 to September 8, 2024, and promises to be an interesting conclusion to the 2024 season in South Korea. Aside from the main contender for victory in the form of Gen.G, 5 other clubs will be competing for the championship title, with the best chances to break Gen.G’s “Golden Road” being T1, KT Rolster, DPlus KIA, and HLE.

The winner of the LCK Summer 2024 will go to Worlds 2024, while the rest of the teams will receive a certain number of LCK Championship points, which are also important for further qualification to Worlds 2024.