From September 12 to 13, the LCK settles its season at the KSPO Dome in Seoul while the LPL does the same at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center — with Worlds seeds, salary cap fortunes and a few career-defining storylines riding on the results.
LCK: a qualifier full of history, a final full of records
Saturday's finals qualifier between Hanwha Life Esports and T1 is the seventh meeting of the year in LCK, and the record leans heavily one way: 5-2 for Hanwha Life Esports. T1 took the LCK Cup and the first regular season round — then lost every meeting since, including two BO5s: the MSI qualifier and the Round 2 reverse sweep, where Hanwha Life Esports came back from 0-2. The psychological edge in long series is theirs.
The battle should be decided in the bot lane, and it is loaded with history. Lee "" Min-hyung spent his career at T1 until 2025 — nobody knows T1's style, or Ryu "" Min-seok's strengths and weaknesses, better. On the other side, Kim "" Su-hwan dominated Gumayusi repeatedly while winning titles in Gen.G colors.
