The 2024 LCK season is the 13th season of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), a professional South Korean esports league for the MOBA PC game League of Legends. The season is divided into two splits: Spring and Summer. The Spring Split began on 17 January and culminated with the playoff finals on 14 April 2024.
| 2024 LCK season | |
|---|---|
| League | LCK |
| Sport | League of Legends |
| Duration |
|
| Number of teams | 10 |
| Spring | |
| Season champions | Gen.G |
| Runners-up | T1 |
| Season MVP | Chovy (Gen.G) |
League changes
editTeams
editLiiv Sandbox rebranded its esports team FearX heading into the 2024 season,[1] in which became BNK FearX on 23 May in time for the Summer Split
Salary cap
editIn response to financial challenges faced by LCK organizations, such as Gen.G's CEO Arnold Hur revealing that his team had "never turned a profit" despite leading in sponsorship revenue, the LCK implemented a hard salary cap for starting rosters and a luxury tax system for the 2024 season. The salary cap will be calculated based on the total salary paid to the starting roster, excluding substitutes or benched players. It consists of a minimum level, set at 70% of a team's revenue earned in 2022, and an upper limit. Teams exceeding the maximum cap will incur a luxury tax, which will be redistributed to teams that stayed within the limit. However, to be eligible for a share of the luxury tax, teams must reach the minimum level of the salary cap. There is no individual cap on a player's salary, only for the entire team, and there are exceptions and bonuses based on player achievements.[2]
Spring
editThe Spring Split regular season ran from 17 January to 24 March 2024. The 10 teams played a total of 90 games, and all regular season games were played in a best-of-three format. The top six teams from the regular season advanced to the playoffs, which took place from 30 March to 14 April 2024.[1] The top two teams from the playoffs advanced to the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational.[3]
Regular season
edit| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PCT | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gen.G | 18 | 17 | 1 | .944 | Advance to upper semifinals |
| 2 | T1 | 18 | 15 | 3 | .833 | |
| 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 18 | 15 | 3 | .833 | Advance to upper quarterfinals |
| 4 | KT Rolster | 18 | 11 | 7 | .611 | |
| 5 | Dplus Kia | 18 | 9 | 9 | .500 | |
| 6 | Kwangdong Freecs | 18 | 7 | 11 | .389 | |
| 7 | FearX | 18 | 6 | 12 | .333 | |
| 8 | Nongshim RedForce | 18 | 4 | 14 | .222 | |
| 9 | DRX | 18 | 3 | 15 | .167 | |
| 10 | OKSavingsBank Brion | 18 | 3 | 15 | .167 |
Playoffs
edit| Upper quarterfinals | Upper semifinals | Upper final | Final | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Gen.G | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 3 | 5 | Dplus KIA | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Kwangdong Freecs | 0 | 1 | Gen.G | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Top seed selects opponent | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | T1 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | KT Rolster | 2 | 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Dplus Kia | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Gen.G | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | T1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Lower semifinals | Lower final | |||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Dplus KIA | 0 | 2 | T1 | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | T1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
Source: LoL Esports
Summer
editRegular season
edit| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | PCT | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gen.G | 18 | 17 | 1 | .944 | Advance to upper semifinals |
| 2 | Hanwha Life Esports | 18 | 14 | 4 | .778 | |
| 3 | Dplus Kia | 18 | 13 | 5 | .722 | Advance to upper quarterfinals |
| 4 | T1 | 18 | 11 | 7 | .611 | |
| 5 | KT Rolster | 18 | 9 | 9 | .500 | |
| 6 | BNK FearX | 18 | 8 | 10 | .444 | |
| 7 | Kwangdong Freecs | 18 | 7 | 11 | .389 | |
| 8 | Nongshim RedForce | 18 | 5 | 13 | .278 | |
| 9 | DRX | 18 | 4 | 14 | .222 | |
| 10 | Ok SavingBank Brion | 18 | 2 | 16 | .111 |
Playoffs
edit| Upper quarterfinals | Upper semifinals | Upper final | Final | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Gen.G | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Dplus Kia | 3 | 3 | Dplus Kia | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | BNK FearX | 1 | 1 | Gen.G | 3 | |||||||||||||
| Top seed selects opponent | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Hanwha Life Esports | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Hanwha Life Esports | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | T1 | 3 | 4 | T1 | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | KT Rolster | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Gen.G | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Hanwha Life Esports | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Lower semifinals | Lower final | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Hanwha Life Esports | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Dplus Kia | 1 | 4 | T1 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | T1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
Source: LoL Esports
World Championship qualification
editChampionship points
edit| Pos | Team | Spr | Sum | Total | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanwha Life Esports | 50 | AQ | AQ | 2024 World Championship |
| 2 | Gen.G | 90 | 100 | 190 | |
| 3 | T1 | 70 | 80 | 150 | Advance to regional qualifier upper Round 1 |
| 4 | Dplus Kia | 30 | 50 | 80 | |
| 5 | KT Rolster | 20 | 30 | 50 | Advance to regional qualifier lower Round 1 |
| 6 | BNK FearX | 0 | 10 | 10 | |
| 7 | Kwangdong Freecs | 10 | 0 | 10 | |
| 8 | Nongshim RedForce | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 9 | DRX | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | Ok SavingBank Brion | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Regional qualifier
editThe regional qualifier is a tournament consisting of the top four teams in the LCK based on championship points that had not directly qualified for the 2024 World Championship. The top two teams face off, and the winner earns a spot in the World Championship. Simultaneously, the bottom two teams played against each other, with the losing team being eliminated. The remaining two teams then compete for the last LCK spot in the 2024 World Championship.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Advance to Worlds | |||||||||||
| 3 | T1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Dplus Kia | |||||||||||||
| 4 | Dplus Kia | 3 | |||||||||||
| 3 | T1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| T1 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | KT Rolster | 2 | |||||||||||
| 5 | KT Rolster | 3 | |||||||||||
| 6 | FearX | 0 | |||||||||||
Source: LoL Esports
Awards
edit- Spring
- Summer
- Most Valuable Player: Peyz, Gen.G
- Player of the Split: Chovy, Gen.G
- Rookie of the Year: Lucid, Dplus Kia
- 1st Team All-Pro:
- T Kiin, Gen.G
- J Canyon, Gen.G
- M Chovy, Gen.G
- B Peyz, Gen.G
- S Lehends, Gen.G
- 2nd Team All-Pro:
- T Doran, Hanwha Life Esports
- J Peanut, Hanwha Life Esports
- M Zeka, Hanwha Life Esports
- B Viper, Hanwha Life Esports
- S Delight, Hanwha Life Esports
References
edit- ^ a b Cha, Jong-kwan (January 4, 2024). "2024 LCK 스프링 1월 17일 개막…젠지-T1 맞대결" [2024 LCK Spring opens on January 17th... Gen.G-T1 showdown]. Kukmin Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved January 4, 2024.
- ^ Taifalos, Nicholas (July 19, 2023). "LCK brings in salary cap for LoL teams, will punish offenders with 'luxury tax'". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
- ^ Jang, David (April 14, 2024). "All teams qualified for MSI 2024". InvenGlobal. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e Lee, Yong-jun (March 26, 2024). "'쵸비' 정지훈, 스프링 정규 리그 MVP...어워드 '싹쓸이 3관왕'" ['Chovy' Jeong Ji-hoon, spring regular league MVP... won three awards in a 'sweep']. The Korea Daily (in Korean). Retrieved March 30, 2024.