LCK salary cap update explained: what the new star-player rules change, and who keeps the old deal
Photo Credit: LCK
The LCK has revised its official rulebook ahead of the 2026 offseason, and the biggest change targets the mechanism at the heart of every superteam: the salary cap discount for star players. Here is what was true before, what changes now — and whyevery trophy lifted between the KSPO Dome and Brooklyn matters more than ever for teams' 2027 budgets.
A quick reminder of how the system works
The LCK operates under a balanced spending system: teams that exceed the spending cap pay a luxury tax. But not every salary counts fully toward the cap. Two discounts exist. Players with elite results — the "performance-excellent players" — see only 50% of their pay counted. Players who have spent three or more consecutive seasons with the same team , . : a loyal superstar counts for just 35% of his real salary —
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get a loyalty discount
with only 70% counted
The two multiply
a 65% reduction that has powered the league's dynasties.
What was true before
Under the old rules, performance-excellent status was effectively earned for life. Points from LCK titles and international trophies accumulated over a player's entire career, and once the thresholds were crossed, the 50% discount applied with no expiry — and with no limit on how many such players a team could stack. It was the framework that helped keep a championship core affordable.
What changes now
The update tightens both screws at once. Performance points are now counted over a rolling three-year window — for 2026, only results from 2023 to 2025 count — with a threshold of six points. And no matter how many players qualify, only two per team can receive the discount, with teams required to designate their chosen pair to the league office.
The points scale has been rebalanced too: the LCK season championship — as opposed to the LCK Cup — is worth 2 points (split titles from the two-split era, before 2025, count at 1.5), the LCK Cup and First Stand 1 each, MSI 2 — and Worlds moves up to 3, making the Summoner's Cup the fastest route to the status.
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The grandfather clause — and its trap
Current contracts are protected, under strict conditions. A player whose deal was signed before July 19, 2026 and runs beyond November 16, 2026 keeps the old regime for the full duration of that contract, provided he meets the old criteria by that November date. The protection even travels: a trade or loan carries the benefit to the new team, since the existing contract moves unchanged — only a renegociation kills it.
Those criteria run on their own scale, which carries the same 2025 revaluation: split titles from the two-split era count for 1 point, single-season titles from 2025 onward for 2, First Stand for 1 and Worlds or MSI for 2 each. Unlike the new rule and its single overall threshold, eligibility here rests on two separate counters: a player needs at least 3 LCK points and 4 international points, plus either 5 LCK points or 6 international points in total. Crucially, teams with more than two such "existing" players keep the discount on all of them — the two-player cap does not apply to them.
But the clause carries a trap. As long as two or more grandfathered players benefit, no newly qualified player can join them — unless the team renounces the grandfather protection entirely, for everyone, and falls back to the standard two-player limit. Renegotiating or extending a protected contract does not erase the protection, but it does not stretch it either: the original duration and salary stay covered, while any added years or raised amounts fall under the new regime — closing the door to creative accounting.
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Why every trophy until mid-November decides millions
The old criteria can still be met until November 16— two days after the Worlds final. Two deadlines therefore stand between the league's stars and career-long discounts: the LCK Grand Final at the KSPO Dome this weekend, and Worlds that concludes in Brooklyntwo months from now. The league's official contract database, cross-referenced with each player's trophy record, lays out the scenarios team by team.
The entire core is contractually eligible — Faker and Keria signed through 2029, Oner and Peyz through 2028. Faker already meets the old criteria several times over.
The others each miss one piece. Oner and Keria have the international side covered by three straight Worlds, but only one LCK trophy (Spring 2022) — the 2026 title carries both to the domestic floor. Peyz is the mirror image: domestic floor secured from his Gen.G years, but he needs Worlds for the international one and the LCK title for the five-point bar. Only winning both titles protects him.
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The upside is enormous: win both, and all four stars stack discounts through 2028 and beyond, untouched by the two-player limit. The downside is brutal: win nothing, and only Faker stays grandfathered, with a single new-regime slot beside him for Oner and Keria to fight over — and Peyz left out.
Even that second slot lives on borrowed time. The Worlds 2024 and 2025 titles keep it alive through 2027, but without fresh trophies to refill the sliding window, it evaporates from 2028 — Faker alone reduced on the league's most expensive roster. Everything rides on Sunday and Brooklyn.
Chovy and Ruler, both signed through 2027, qualify as existing performance-excellent players, locking their 50% regardless of what happens next. But Kiin and Canyon's contracts end on November 16, 2026 — on the global end date, not beyond it, which the clause requires — and with two protected players already on the books, the rulebook freezes any newly qualified player out of the discount. Their only relief would be the 30% loyalty reduction.
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That makes Gen.G the update's clear losers — and, unlike their rivals, nothing that happens on the Rift can change it. Chovy and Ruler's protection is locked, and the freeze rule blocks any third beneficiary: their floor and their ceiling are the same two discounts. The frustration is that under the old regime, they could have had four. Canyon already meets the old thresholds thanks to his DWG KIA years, and Kiin would cross them with a 2026 title — both shut out for a single day on the calendar.
Zeus is the strange case. His contract ends on November 16, 2026 — one day short of the grandfather clause — but his 2023-2025 trophies clear the new criteria with ease. Everything below assumes he re-signs: his expiring deal is what puts him on the market.
Without a title, Hanwha Life Esports designate Zeus and Gumayusi as their two discounted players. With the LCK title, Gumayusi becomes grandfathered — his Worlds three-peat and MSI 2026 already cover the international side — and Zeus keeps the second slot.
The double is where it breaks. Worlds would push Zeka over the old thresholds too, thanks to his 2022 run with DRX. Two grandfathered players, freeze rule triggered:Zeus, architect of the near perfect season, ends up without a discount — right as he negotiates his next contract.
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For the team, the stakes mirror T1's, one size smaller: without a trophy, both discounts sit on aging trophies and fade with the window; each title converts one into a guarantee through 2027. One more reason to leave the KSPO Dome with the trophy.
What is certain is that every trophy lifted between now and mid-November now carries a price tag far beyond the prize pool.
The fine print: short-term contracts and a steeper tax
Among the smaller changes, one could quietly reshape roster building: contracts no longer need to end on the global official contract end date — the third Monday of November. Teams can now sign genuine short-term deals ending at any earlier point, a January-to-June stopgap for example. Multi-year contracts, on the other hand, must still terminate on a global end date, with no in-between dates allowed.
The luxury tax itself gets steeper with this update. The old two-bracket scale — 25% on spending between 100% and 200% of the cap, 50% beyond — becomes a four-bracket ladder: 25% up to 150%, 35% up to 200%, 50% up to 250%, and 60% above that. Here too, protection applies: a mechanism credits back the share of any tax increase attributable to contracts signed under the old scale, so nobody is punished retroactively.
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The update finally introduces penalties for teams that fail to submit the required financial documents.
