That includes 10 LCK squads, in addition to groups from abroad, together with North American groups Crew Liquid and Cloud9, the 2025 KeSPA Cup was extra aggressive than ever.
Many Korean gamers have been seeking to showcase their value forward of the brand new season, with the cup additionally opening up the chance to get chosen for the 2026 Nagoya Asian Video games.
Esports Insider seems at among the key takeaways from the KeSPA Cup 2025 because the 2026 LCK season will get nearer and nearer.
T1 Is Nonetheless T1
Regardless of falling to the decrease bracket of the Knockout stage after dropping to Hanwha Life Esports (HLE), T1 nonetheless managed to show why it’s the greatest workforce on the planet.
The 2025 world champion was in a position to crawl its means again to the ultimate after a full best-of-five sequence in opposition to Dplus KIA. Following that, the workforce defeated Hanwha Life Esports within the grand remaining rematch, including one more trophy to its tally.
The workforce already seems in robust kind regardless of the latest roster change, with ADC Kim ‘Peyz‘ Su-hwan changing Lee ‘Gumayusi‘ Min-hyeong. The previous JD Gaming ADC stood out notably at this match, choosing up a pentakill and two further quadrakills.
The LCK May Be A lot Extra Aggressive
Though T1 got here out on prime, the KeSPA Cup provided a satisfying first style of what the LCK may appear to be in 2026. Extra importantly, it confirmed that the season might be rather more contested, with fewer clear gaps between the highest groups and, doubtlessly, the mid-pack of the league.
Hanwha Life Esports regarded just like the strongest workforce of the match at instances. Even Dplus KIA, which struggled to maintain up with the highest squads in 2025, was in a position to push T1 with its new ADC — and former T1 Academy participant — Shin ‘Smash‘ Geum-jae. Different groups, comparable to DN Freecs and Nongshim RedForce, may additionally unsettle the highest groups if its rosters are in a position to elevate the bar a little bit extra.
2026 Will Be the Yr of ADCs?
Whereas the KeSPA Cup’s gameplay will not be as polished because it was on the world championship, a number of ADC gamers shone on the match.
Other than the beforehand talked about Peyz and Smash, HLE’s new marksman Gumayusi and DN Freecs Challengers ADC Kwak ‘Enosh‘ Kyu-jun additionally picked up pentakills on the match and had excellent performances in among the video games.
With the upcoming new season adjustments additional growing an ADC’s company within the recreation, 2026 might be the 12 months of marksmen gamers.
The LCS Groups Nonetheless Have a Lot To Catch Up On
As soon as once more, nevertheless, the KeSPA Cup confirmed the hole between the Japanese and Western groups. Crew Liquid was knocked out within the group stage after dropping to each Nongshim RedForce and T1. C9 faired a bit higher and bought via teams, though it was knocked out by Nongshim RedForce within the Final Likelihood Qualifier.
While an excellent alternative for each organisations, the match did spotlight that there’s a lot to work on if LCS groups wish to struggle for worldwide success.
Extra Unique Livestream Broadcaster Tournaments?
The KeSPA Cup noticed Disney+ act as an unique livestream broadcaster for the competitors, making this one of many first main alerts that unique streaming rights may grow to be a much bigger battleground for tournaments exterior of the same old Twitch and YouTube ecosystem.
This might be notably extra distinguished in South Korea, the place Twitch will not be accessible. In the meantime, streaming platforms comparable to SOOP and CHZZK are closely competing with each other.
Crucially, this shift is happening at a time when an growing variety of low season occasions are now not being immediately operated by Riot Video games itself. The KeSPA Cup’s Disney+ deal could due to this fact be much less of a one-off and extra of an early indicator of how future tournaments and low season occasions might be managed, each competitively and commercially, going ahead.
