League of Legends LCK Cup 2025 Week 1 Betting Picks
The League of Legends LCK Cup 2025 kicks off this week with ten teams competing in a brand new format hoping to take home a title when the dust settles.
Teams have been split up into two groups by way of a draft that was conducted last week. Each team will face teams from the opposite group during the opening phase of the tournament. At the end of this group battle, the top three teams from the side with the most wins will receive an automatic bid to the playoffs. The remaining two teams as well as four of the five teams from the losing side will compete in the play-in round to determine their seeding in the playoffs. The last place team in the losing group will be eliminated from the competition.
The following bets are my favorite for the Week 1 slate of the group battle stage. You can find odds on DraftKings as well as ESPN BET with plenty of options for each match.
If you havenโt already, go check out some of the exciting LoL LCK action on the LCK Global YouTube page.
BRION over DRX (-105 via ESPN BET)
January 15th 12:00 a.m. Pacific
The first match of group play features the two teams picked last for their group in the draft. However, donโt let that selection spot distract you from the fact that BRION is coming off of a 1st place finish at the KeSPA Cup which wrapped up in mid-December of last year.
The squad went 3-2 overall in group play. In the playoffs they got past a red hot Hanwha Life team who had won three straight matches to earn their spot in the semifinals. BRION met Dplus in the Grand Final and walked away with a 3-1 win for the Cup.
Theyโll start their march for the LCK Cup against a DRX team that also finished with a 3-2 record in group play of the KeSPA Cup. They were unable to make it out of the Swiss Stage as NS RedForce eliminated them in the first round.
DRX does hold an advantage in their head-to-head meetings holding a 13-4 record against BRION since the 2021 season. In spite of that, I anticipate an upset here as BRION rides the momentum of their recent tournament win.
Nongshim RedForce over DN Freecs (+135 via ESPN BET)
January 15th, 2:30 a.m. Pacific
The NS RedForce enter this tournament riding a small amount of momentum coming off of an upset win against DRX in the Swiss Stage of the KeSPA Cup last month. Nongshim finished group play in fourth place in Group B with a 2-3 record. However, they pulled it together enough to eliminate DRX, who was 3-2 in their group, in the first round of the Swiss Stage.
Nongshim has won three of its last five matches which is a positive trend heading into their first match in this new LCK Cup format.
The newly rebranded DN Freecs bring their shiny new sponsors with them and will represent Group Baron in this tournament. They are hoping their new affiliation will bring a change of luck as the Freecs have dropped 10 of their last 13 matches between the LCK Summer and KeSPA Cup tournaments.
DN went 3-1 against Nongshim last year overall with the RedForce picking up the win in their last meeting.
