The League of Legends S15 season is nearing its end. As December wraps up, both LPL and LCK regions have one less prestigious tournament remaining. The LPL’s event is the Demacia Cup, which last year required all teams to compete with their full rosters. With many teams having adjusted lineups during the transfer window, the Demacia Cup is indeed a great opportunity for practice, and it’s likely that first-team players will be used.

On the LCK side, the Kespa Cup (abbreviated as K Cup) will take place with 14 participating teams. All 10 LCK teams are involved, along with North America’s C9 and TL, plus two all-star teams from the LCP region (coached by Sofm). The format features a BO1 single round-robin group stage; group winners advance directly to the semifinals, while runners-up face off in a BO3 to determine the final semifinalist.

The semifinals will use a BO3 double-elimination format, and the grand final will be held offline with a BO5 series. The tournament starts on December 6 and runs through the 14th. The groupings have been officially announced: Group A includes GEN, HLE, BFX, C9, and the Vietnam all-star team; Group B consists entirely of LCK local teams; T1 is placed in Group C, which has only four teams — T1, NS, TL, and the Little Japan all-star team.

In just three days, the Kespa Cup will officially begin. Recently, Korean media revealed that all LCK teams will field their first squads becauseparticipation in the Kespa Cup is mandatory to qualify for next year’s Asian Games; without playing in the Kespa Cup, teams won’t have eligibility for the Asian Games qualifiers. The LCK’s policy offers military service exemption to gold medalists at the Asian Games, which is very appealing to players. Therefore, all 10 LCK teams will compete with their full-strength lineups.

This time, the LCK officially decided to charge for Kespa Cup viewing, meaning fans must pay to watch the live broadcasts. This is the first time LCK has tried monetizing broadcasts through viewer fees. The outcome is uncertain, but in promotions, LCK repeatedly emphasized that T1 will participate with their full roster, clearly aiming to attract Faker’s fanbase. If this is successful, future tournaments may adopt paid viewing models.

Besides the Kespa Cup, Riot recently announced that the January edition of the LCK Cup will introduce a real-time coach communication system. This is Riot’s first attempt at such a feature. If effective, other regions will gradually implement it after the LCK Cup concludes. The “coach voice” system allows up to two coaches per team to communicate during a match, with a maximum of three instructions per game, each lasting up to 45 seconds.

In the official announcement, Riot stressed that matches will not pause for coach communication; coaches can speak briefly during live play. Coaches will only have access to the same team vision as the players, integrating them into the game environment. This can’t be useless — for example, a player like Zeka, who plays Ryze for 20 minutes without using Seraph’s Embrace, could benefit from coach reminders.

However, whether coaches have better in-the-moment judgment than players, or if they might give wrong commands, remains unknown. We’ll have to wait for LCK’s trial to see the effect. Personally, I believe this communication is useful because players often get overconfident in winning games. Coaches stepping in occasionally to remind and calm them down can help secure victories.

In conclusion:

Charging for Kespa Cup viewing using T1’s hype has already sparked controversy before the event even started. This trial might mark the beginning of paid live esports broadcasts. However, if fans have to pay just to watch matches, most will probably choose not to watch. Only unofficial events might try this; if applied to official matches, it could backfire for major regions.

So, will you pay to watch the matches?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!