League of Legends Champions Korea (Korean: 리그 오브 레전드 챔피언스 코리아), commonly abbreviated as LCK, is the primary competition for League of Legends esports in South Korea. Contested by ten teams, the league runs two seasons per year and serves as a direct route to qualification for the annual League of Legends World Championship. The LCK is administered in cooperation between Riot Games and KeSPA.
The LCK is widely considered to be the strongest League of Legends competition in the world, with the game’s World Championship having been won by teams from the league from 2013 through 2017; 2018 was the first season since 2013 where a team from the LCK did not win the World Championship. SK Telecom T1 are the current champions of the LCK, winning their eighth title on 31 August 2019 after beating Griffin in the finals of the LCK Summer Split 2019.
Asian League of Legends professionals gamer will probably be troubled by the outbreak of the deadly strain of Coronavirus. After the LPL announced the postponement of the second week of the group stage, it was the Korean Riot’s turn to consider the possibility of delaying the opening day of the LCK if coronavirus worsened in the coming weeks.
“We are carefully monitoring the current situation and considering measures so that the tournament can be safely organized,” a Korean Riot official said.
This person also confirmed that it did not immediately affect the opening day of the League of Legends Champions Korea Spring 2020.
A new strain of the virus, called Corona, which causes pneumonia eggs, was discovered in Wuhan, China in late September last year. The first coronavirus death was reported on January 9 and it is spreading to countries bordering China and many other countries around the world.
However, China is still the country most affected. More than 4,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the country and the number is still growing, prompting officials to postpone community events such as the LPL tournament.
There has been no sign that the LPL Spring 2020 will soon return as the Coronavirus strain has not yet been fully controlled. The number of virus infections has doubled in the world’s most populous country in just one week and more than 130 have died.
In South Korea, only four cases of coronavirus have been reported, but the government says it will do “every possible way” to prevent it.
According to the original schedule, the LCK Spring 2020 will open on February 5 with the first match between the defending champion T1 vs DAMWON Gaming at 15:00.