LCK Rounds 1-2 and Road to MSI 2026 betting prediction, teams, odds, and more

Naerlyn Published September 8, 2025

As Korea’s Spring Split equivalent, the LCK Rounds 1-2 and Road to MSI 2026 is one of the most important League of Legends tournaments worldwide. Our LCK Rounds 1-2 preview includes everything you need to know about the tournament, including its format, dates, teams, and odds.

South Korea’s Spring tournament will go on for two and a half months. Rounds 1 and 2 make way for Road to MSI, after which the two best teams will play for the LCK at the Mid-Season Invitational 2026 in June and July.

In this article, find our predictions about which teams we think will do well at the event. Will Gen.G steamroll every opponent again, or did the loss to G2 Esports show other candidates the way to beat them?

LCK Rounds 1-2 and Road to MSI 2026

LCK Rounds 1-2 and Road to MSI 2026 overview

Format and Schedule

The LCK Spring Split will run for 10 weeks, over two stages.

Rounds 1-2 (April 1 – May 31)

• 10 teams participate
• Teams will play a double round-robin.
• All matches are best-of-three.
• The top six teams advance to the Road to MSI.
• The top five teams will play in the Legends Group in Rounds 3-4, while the bottom five will play in the Rise Group.
• The matches run Wednesday through Sunday, with two matches a day.

Road to MSI (June 6 – June 14)

• The top two teams play one match. The winner becomes South Korea’s first seed at MSI and qualifies to EWC 2026.
• The top three through six and the loser of the first match play in a four-round King of the Hill bracket. The final winner receives the second MSI slot.
• All matches are best-of-five.

Road to MSI qualifies the teams for the Mid-Season Invitational but does not crown a champion for the split. Afterwards, Rounds 3-4 will keep going from the teams’ current scores without resetting them.

LCK Rounds 1-2 Teams

The LCK Rounds 1-2 retains the same 10 teams. This will be the single split where they all play in the same group. It’s important to be well-informed of the participants when betting on LoL esports. The 10 teams competing are:

• Gen.G
• BNK FearX
• Dplus Kia
• T1
• DN SOOPers
• DRX
• NS RedForce
• BRION
• KT Rolster
• Hanwha Life Esports

For more on these teams, read up on their rosters there.

Outright odds

Odds as of March 27 on GG.BET.

LCK Rounds 1-2 Prediction

Here are our predictions for the LCK Rounds 1-2. The LCK Cup brought many surprises, and so did First Stand. With most teams having a break since then, the rosters will be more accustomed to playing together. Because of that, Rounds 1-2 should not repeat the upsets of the LCK Cup.

Gen.G, (almost) always the best in the world

Gen.G went through the LCK Cup without losing a match, and with only two game losses. However, coming into First Stand, their streak was broken, and by G2 Esports of all teams. It seems like the weakness of “the best team in the world 11 out of 12 months” isn’t Worlds, but rather single-elimination formats.

Despite their shocking loss at First Stand, Gen.G remains the favorite to win the LCK Rounds 1-2. Image source: Cesar Galeao / Riot Games

Luckily for them, there is no single-elimination in the LCK. No “high-stakes with a single chance” games. Gen.G will be back to dominate the LCK and claim first place as always. No team seems capable of standing up to them.

T1, the return of the champion

Everyone expected either T1 or HLE to finish in second place in the LCK Versus. However, after also having an undefeated regular season, they lost both of their playoff matches. Falling to BFX and DK, T1’s run ended short.

T1 is a team that ramps up over the season, though. The six-time world champions will always show up at some point, the question is when. Doubtless that they’ll fare better in Rounds 1-2 with the extra time to find their identity. “Better”, while the starting point is a team that went 5-0 in the Cup’s group stage.

Will T1 rise again in the LCK Rounds 1-2? Image source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Hanwha Life Esports, rounding out the golden trio

Gen.G, T1, and HLE are the eternal top 3 of the LCK. Yet, they finished last in the LCK Cup. In practice, this is due to the weird format of this tournament, and they had a better score than several of their competitors.

Still, HLE vastly underperformed when compared to their expectations. The 2025 iteration was a superteam, and then they picked up Gumayusi of all players. HLE will most likely pick up the pace come Rounds 1-2.

The real question is whether they’ll place above T1. Winter results should say no, but this one is a risky bet.

Featured image source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games