With the 2025 LCK regular season now concluded, the drama shifts to the play-ins and playoffs.

Spanning five days beginning Wednesday the 3rd, the play-ins serve as the gateway to the playoffs for two squads. The lineup includes Nongshim RedForce, who finished 5th in the Legend Group, alongside Rise Group top seeds Dplus KIA, BNK FearX, and OK Savings Bank BRION. Under current regulations, Nongshim RedForce will clash with OK Savings Bank BRION, while Dplus KIA and BNK FearX are set to face off on Thursday the 4th.

The teams meeting in the first round of play-ins find themselves at a disadvantage, possessing far less experience with the best-of-five Fearless Draft format than those who already secured their playoff spots. BNK FearX and OK Savings Bank BRION struggled during the LCK Cup—the debut stage for the Fearless Draft—and never reached a best-of-five series. While Nongshim RedForce and Dplus KIA did advance, Nongshim RedForce was eliminated in the first round, leaving only Dplus KIA to play three matches until the final qualifier. Both sides did attempt the Fearless Draft format during the LCK MSI representative qualifiers, but back-to-back losses against KT Rolster denied them any meaningful chance to refine their strategy.

Because of this, the coaches of all four play-in teams are in agreement: the best-of-five Fearless Draft will be the defining factor. While the consensus suggests the Fearless Draft impact is minimal in the best-of-three regular season—where ban and pick patterns tend to become stagnant—the best-of-five is a different beast entirely. By the fifth game, teams are barred from using 50 champions, forcing coaches to get creative. Success in this format demands a massive champion pool and the strategic foresight to keep a 'pocket pick' in reserve for that final, deciding game.

Over these five days, the quartet must sharpen their adaptability to the Fearless Draft on the fly. The teams that can think on their feet and pivot quickest will likely be the ones walking away with a ticket to the playoffs.

A deep dive into the head-to-head records for the first-round matchups reveals a clear advantage for Nongshim RedForce and Dplus KIA.

Nongshim RedForce has been a nightmare for OK Savings Bank BRION, riding an 11-match winning streak over the last three years. Since falling to OK Savings Bank BRION in the 2023 LCK Spring first round, Nongshim RedForce has dominated every encounter. With their current 2025 roster, they dismantled OK Savings Bank BRION 2-0 twice in the LCK Cup, followed by 2-0 and 2-1 victories during the regular season.

However, cracks are beginning to show. After a strong start in the first and second rounds secured their spot in the Legend Group, Nongshim RedForce suffered a harrowing 12-match losing streak across the third to fifth rounds. Conversely, OK Savings Bank BRION enters with momentum, having secured their play-in spot with a thrilling, do-or-die victory against DRX on the final day of the regular season, August 31st.

Dplus KIA is equally dominant over BNK FearX, boasting a staggering 13-1 record over the past three years. Dplus KIA maintained an 11-match win streak from the 2023 Spring season through the second round of this year, and during their Rise Group encounters, Dplus KIA emerged victorious in both the 3rd and 5th rounds.

One must remember that these historical records may prove irrelevant. Since the play-ins utilize a double-elimination bracket, the path forward is anything but certain. The atmosphere will shift depending on the outcome of the winner and loser brackets, and teams in the lower bracket will face the crushing pressure of elimination, rendering past head-to-head stats effectively moot as the tournament progresses.

Meanwhile, the LCK confirmed that Gen.G mid-laner 'Chovy' Jeong Ji-hoon has secured the most 'Player Of The Match' awards for the 2025 regular season. Other award recipients, excluding the Finals MVP, will be unveiled during the year-end LCK Awards.