2025 Asia Invitational: LCK shuts out LPL again, the same old story!

In recent League of Legends international tournaments, the competition ultimately comes down to the "China-Korea" showdown between LPL and LCK. But looking at the past two years' results, LPL appears to be losing steam. Setting aside the embarrassing episode of the Rift Rivals where our first split winner TES went in with high hopes but ended up with a disappointing "spinning top" story—a moment hard to forget—at that time, LPL had already become the underdog region. It wasn’t until after MSI that LPL showed some slight improvement, though not much, since they were once again dominated by LCK at MSI! This confirms one fact: currently, LPL is the challenger against LCK! Before this year’s World Championship, the organizers held an Asia Invitational to let us see how LPL teams outside the World Championship stack up against LCK. The results were shocking!

During the 2025 League of Legends Asia Invitational group stage, as the fifth seeds from LPL and LCK faced off, DK swept JDG 2-0 to claim victory! The team’s core player Showmaker expressed strong determination to win the tournament. Indeed, in this event, Xu “许哥” and DK showed they could stand on their own, as they missed the Worlds only because of an unfortunate matchup against GEN, not due to a lack of skill! JDG’s performance also revealed many issues: their early and mid-game pace was fine, but in the mid-to-late game, their team communication and decision-making became disjointed, a problem persisting throughout this season. Of course, DK came to the 2025 ASI to dominate, and it seems the regional king must still be Lee “Faker”!

In another group match, LPL’s seventh seed NIP faced LCK’s sixth seed and was completely dominated, losing 0-2! Both teams featured mostly rookies, essentially a battle of emerging lineups. NIP was led by veteran Doinb, but it wasn’t enough. In the first game, NIP secured the crucial Infernal Soul and pushed with Baron buff after defeating BFX. Unfortunately, LCK’s team made more decisive plays and better read the game situation! At the ASI event, the first encounters between LPL and LCK ended in shutouts—same old story! It remains to be seen whether LPL will face the same fate against LCK again at the World Championship. We’ll wait and see!