2021 LCK season
| 2021 LCK season | |
|---|---|
| League | LCK |
| Sport | League of Legends |
| Duration | 13 January – 10 April (Spring) |
| Teams | 10 |
| Spring | |
| Season champions | DWG KIA |
| Runners-up | Gen.G |
| Season MVP | Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu[1] (DWG KIA) |
| Summer | |
| Season champions | DWG KIA |
| Runners-up | T1 |
| Season MVP | Han "Peanut" Wang-ho[2] (Nongshim RedForce) |
The 2021 LCK season was the tenth season of South Korea's LCK, a professional esports league for the MOBA PC game League of Legends.
2021 was also the first season LCK implemented their long-term partnership model.[3] On 1 November 2020, Riot Korea announced the ten organizations that successfully signed the contract for LCK franchising model.[4]
The regular season format was double round robin. During the first round of the split, games were played five days per week, and for the second round, games took place four days a week.[5]
The spring split began on 13 January 2021 and concluded with the spring finals on 10 April 2021.
Broadcasting
The LCK was broadcast at the following platforms:[6]
Korean: Naver, Afreeca TV, Twitch
English: Twitch
Chinese: HuyaTV
French: OTP
Spring
Regular season
| Pos | Team | SW | SL | GW | GL | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DWG KIA | 16 | 2 | 33 | 10 | 23 | Advance to Semifinals |
| 2 | Gen.G | 13 | 5 | 29 | 15 | 14 | |
| 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 12 | 6 | 26 | 18 | 8 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | T1 | 11 | 7 | 27 | 17 | 10 | |
| 5 | DRX | 9 | 9 | 21 | 26 | −5 | |
| 6 | Nongshim RedForce | 7 | 11 | 18 | 24 | −6 | |
| 7 | KT Rolster | 6 | 12 | 18 | 27 | −9 | |
| 8 | Liiv SANDBOX | 6 | 12 | 15 | 25 | −10 | |
| 9 | Afreeca Freecs | 5 | 13 | 16 | 26 | −10 | |
| 10 | Fredit BRION | 5 | 13 | 12 | 27 | −15 |
Source: [7]
Playoffs
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||
| DWG KIA | 3 | ||||||||||
| Hanwha Life Esports | 3 | Hanwha Life Esports | 0 | ||||||||
| Nongshim RedForce | 2 | DWG KIA | 3 | ||||||||
| Gen.G | 0 | ||||||||||
| Gen.G | 3 | ||||||||||
| T1 | 3 | T1 | 0 | ||||||||
| DRX | 1 | ||||||||||
Awards
- Most Valuable Player: Canyon, DWG KIA[1]
- Players of the Split: ShowMaker, DWG KIA; Pyosik, DRX; Chovy, Hanwha Life Esports[8]
- Finals MVP: Khan, DWG KIA[9]
Summer
Regular season
| Pos | Team | SW | SL | GW | GL | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DWG KIA | 12 | 6 | 29 | 14 | 15 | Advance to Semifinals |
| 2 | Gen.G | 12 | 6 | 27 | 19 | 8 | |
| 3 | Nongshim RedForce | 12 | 6 | 27 | 19 | 8 | Advance to Quarterfinals |
| 4 | T1 | 11 | 7 | 25 | 19 | 6 | |
| 5 | Liiv SANDBOX | 11 | 7 | 26 | 21 | 5 | |
| 6 | Afreeca Freecs | 11 | 7 | 25 | 21 | 4 | |
| 7 | KT Rolster | 7 | 11 | 21 | 25 | −4 | |
| 8 | Hanwha Life Esports | 7 | 11 | 17 | 26 | −9 | |
| 9 | Fredit BRION | 5 | 13 | 20 | 28 | −8 | |
| 10 | DRX | 2 | 16 | 9 | 34 | −25 |
Source: [11]
Playoffs
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||
| DWG KIA | 3 | ||||||||||
| Nongshim RedForce | 3 | Nongshim Redforce | 0 | ||||||||
| Afreeca Freecs | 1 | DWG KIA | 3 | ||||||||
| T1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Gen.G | 1 | ||||||||||
| T1 | 3 | T1 | 3 | ||||||||
| Liiv Sandbox | 0 | ||||||||||
Awards
- Most Valuable Player: Peanut, Nongshim RedForce[2]
- Player of the Split: Gori, Nongshim RedForce[12]
- Rookie of the Year: Croco, Liiv SANDBOX[13]
- Best Coach: kkOma, DWG KIA[14]
References
- 1 2 Heath, Jerome (2 April 2021). "DWG's Canyon wins regular season MVP for 2021 LCK Spring split". Dot Esports. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
- 1 2 Lupasco, Cristian (17 August 2021). "Nongshim RedForce's Peanut named MVP of the 2021 LCK Summer Split". Dot Esports. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
- ↑ "[Official] Franchising in the LCK to start from 2021". InvenGlobal. 6 April 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ↑ "[LCK] Riot Games announces the 10 finalized organizations that made it into LCK's franchising model". InvenGlobal. 2 November 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ↑ "Details of the 2021 LCK Spring announced, Wolf and Chronicler newly joins the LCK global caster line-up". InvenGlobal. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ↑ "After LCK and YouTube fail to agree, where to watch the 2021 LCK". WIN.gg. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ↑ "[LCK Today] T1 soars over HLE with sweep, LSB upsets DRX". 28 March 2021.
- ↑ @LCK (28 March 2021). "2021 SPRING LCK AWARDS" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ @LCK (10 April 2021). "2021 SPRING LCK AWARDS" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- 1 2 3 @LCK (6 April 2021). "2021 SPRING #LCK AWARDS" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ "[LCK Today] Gen.G defeats NS RedForce 2-0 to secure 2nd place in the regular split standings". 15 August 2021.
- ↑ @LCK (17 August 2021). "Congratulations to the Player of the Split, Gori!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ "Croco wins 2021 LCK Rookie of the Year". InvenGlobal. 28 December 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
- ↑ Jang, David "Viion" (17 August 2021). "NS Peanut receives 2021 LCK Summer MVP, Best Coach DK kkOma". InvenGlobal. Retrieved 15 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 Jang, David "Viion" (17 August 2021). "Riot Games announces All-LCK Teams for the 2021 LCK Summer Season". InvenGlobal. Retrieved 15 July 2026.