The 2024 season of League of Legends has ended, with another win for the LCK team T1. Looking back, there were many powerful teams who made the Worlds Tournament, as well as a very competitive regular season. As the 2025 season approaches, many changes to rosters, format, and region as a whole follow suit. This article will describe the changes in rosters, and predict the performance with sourcing from professional analysts, as well as discuss the controversies within these changes.
The roster changes are as follows:
BNK FearX upgrades mid and bot lanes. DN Freecs upgraded jungle to Pyosik, as well as regaining Berserker from LTA (American League) and Life from LPL (Chinese League). Dplus Kia promotes the 17-year-old Siwoo from academy league to their main roster; with a young prodigy, they also bring back seasoned support Beryl for team cohesiveness. DRX have rebuilt their roster around adc Teddy, with Rookie top laner Rich, mid laner Ucal, and support Andil. Gen.g retains most of their roster, but upgrades their bot lane with strong adc Ruler from the LPL, and rookie support Duro. KT Rolster keeps its solo laners, while welcoming LPL adc Deokdam with past KT jungler Cuzz and rooke support Way. For Nongshim Redforce, Strong pickups include Kingen in the top lane, Fisher in the mid lane, and Lehends at support. OK Brion gained a strong mid-laner in Clozer, and promoted rookies HamBak in jungle and Hype in adc. Last and most controversially, T1 and Hanwha Life Esports have swapped their top laners, leaving Doran at T1 and Zeus at HLE. 
The Zeus-Doran situation has been ongoing throughout the past month. The situation began with T1 ending the year winning Worlds back to back, making it to Worlds finals all of the three years in which the team was together (coming second in 2022). Expectations from companies and sponsors were high, as the super team, nicknamed ZOFGK, (Zeus, Oner, Faker, Gumayusi, and Keria) were predicted to stay together. However, in a turn of events, T1 announced that Zeus would not be returning and would be suing Zeus’s agency. The agency had allegedly used shady tactics and malpractice to get Zeus to sign with Hanwha Life Esports because of contract salaries.
In response to the allegations from the T1 agency, ThePlay (Zeus’s agency) responded with a statement. “A 3 p.m. deadline was set for T1 at the request of Hanwha Life Esports”
However, John Rey of Hanwha Life Esports released a statement confirming that there was indeed no deadline for Zeus to sign with HLE. The investigation is still ongoing, but it is important to respect all parties and decisions that are made.
Gen.G, Hanwha Life Esports, and T1 are predicted to be the best teams in the conference. These teams have always had strong rosters, and lead the LCK. Dplus Kia is ranked fourth among these teams. Provided their rookie toplaner Siwoo does well, the team will have five competitive players that could rival the top three. Close behind Dplus Kia is DN Freecs. Another strong roster that, provided their players perform, can compete for the top four. KT Rolster has lost strength after losing their strong bot lane of Deft adc and Beryl support. Because of the lack of strength in the side lanes, this team falls into the sixth spot. Battling to make it to the playoffs will be teams like Nongshim Redforce and OK Brion. These teams have roster overhauls and rookies with a lot of potential to perform well. These two have the highest chances to upset the rankings. BNK FearX and DRX seem to be the least-rated teams. They have players who have been underperforming, as well as roster changes that have bad chemistry. With all of these changes, all of the teams are very strong; even bottom-tier teams will be competitive, but the rankings of LCK have been consistent in the past years.
