LoL fans furious as T1 miss 2025’s first international due to LCK format changes

League of Legends fans are livid as T1 misses the year’s first international, largely due to format changes that put their team in an unfavorable position despite solid regular season performance.

The LCK Cup is a new format that’s meant to get through the regular season fast. LoL has 3 big internationals as a part of its circuit in 2025 (4 counting the EWC), so getting through the opening Winter months fast is essential.

However, the way in which the LCK has chosen to do it has sparked controversy. While T1 would still be in the competition if they’d beaten Hanwha Life Esports, format changes ultimately led to 2 of the best teams in the LCK fighting in the lower bracket for the very first elimination match of Playoffs.

As a result, T1 are out of the running for First Stand very early on despite winning Worlds in 2023 and 2024, leading to a massive outcry from fans of the team.

T1 fans slam LCK as Faker misses First Stand

So, how does the LCK Cup format actually work? Was the format really the primary reason T1 got knocked out so early? For the most part, yes.

Here’s a quick rundown of how the LCK Cup’s format works:

The league’s 10 teams got split up into 2 groups, with each team playing a BO3 match against the 5 teams in the opposing group. The result of those games would be recorded based on performance in the set. Teams could get up to 2 points for a 2-0 win over the opposing team, but could lose up to 2 points for a 0-2 loss.

In other words, T1 got stuck in the losing group despite being one of the top performing teams, and they were placed at a much lower seed entirely due to factors out of the team’s control.

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Unless T1 went on a historic flawless run, not dropping a single game in any of their BO3 sets, they could not have changed the outcome of the bracket and forced their way into being the winning group.

The backlash from fans of T1 and the LCK in general has been swift, with many labeling the new format a “disgrace” that gave worse teams a free ride further into the bracket.

“This is the worst and most unfair format I have seen in the history of esports,” remarked H2K founder Rich.

T1 or HLE had to be eliminated before playoffs because OTHER teams in their group suck?

This is the worst and most unfair format I have seen in the history of esports.

Honestly, a complete disgrace, denying us more epic series with T1, who are clearly a top 3 team #LCKCup

— Rich (@RichsWrath) February 13, 2025

“Now we don’t have T1 playing til April (2 months of no games) because we lost one best of 5 WTF,” commented T1 fan and streamer Feviknight.

Worse still, T1 was forced to stare down Zeus hot off of him leaving their team for Hanwha Life Esports, with Zeus’ stellar performance ultimately sealing T1’s fate. There was no small amount of controversy around him departing the team in the off-season.

This loss ultimately means that Faker won’t be attending the very first First Stand, a new LoL international that pits the best team from each region against each other to kick off the year.