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We have reached the LCK Cup 2025 grand finals. This is probably the centrepiece of the League of Legends winter season, as South Korea is the flagship region that sets the tone for the whole scene.
At stake is not only the title of LCK champion, which is certainly prestigious and important, but also a ticket to First Stand - the first international tournament of the season.
Hanwha Life Esports and Gen.G, who have already played against each other in the top flight, will play for the First Stand Tournament. The International will be more interesting to watch the rematch.
Let's go.
Hanwha Life Esports uniforms
Let's open our analysis of the HLE vs Gen.G match with an analysis of Hanwha Life Esports' form. In this match HLE will play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.7.
HLE have consistently made it to the late stages of the regular split. This only started to happen in 2023. Before that, in the 2022 season, HLE were the worst team in the race, twice finishing in the top 10 in regular splits.
It was corrected by 2023, after the big Reshuffle. Two reigning world champions joined the HLE roster, which strengthened the club considerably.
- HLE roster: Zeus, Peanut, Zeka, Viper, Delight.
With the addition of Zeka and Kingen to the HLE lineup, it was clearly more vigorous. So much so that they made it to the top 4 of LCK Spring 2023. The latest addition to HLE is Grizzly, a jungler who got promoted from the academic roster.
It seems to be working out pretty well. HLE finished in the top 3 in the regular season, which with teams like Dplus, T1 and other top teams is pretty good.
In the first play-offs match HLE warmed up against DRX. Nominally reigning world champions couldn't do anything against their visions and HLE easily closed the match with the score 3-0.
Then the situation was not so rosy: HLE ran into Gen.G and fell 0-3. The favour went to the bottom set of play-offs, but it did not save them for long.
Hanwha Life Esports faced KT Rolster in the first match of the last chance grid. The pressure was too hard and HLE was washed away: 0-3 and a play-offs exit, and at the same time not a pass to Worlds 2023.
They tried to make it to the Worlds in the regional finals, but again failed. LCK finished the final tournament of the season in the top 3, having failed to use either of the two attempts to qualify for the Worlds: they lost first to KT Rolster with a 1-3 score and then to Ledge or DPlus KIA with the same score.
Hanwha Life Esports finished the LCK Spring 2024 season in the top 3. The team once again fell one series short of reaching the international LAN tournament.
HLE advanced to the LCK Summer 2024 play-offs from the second place of the regular season, finishing 14-4. Went directly to the second stage of the playoffs. They debuted at the LCK Summer 2024 play-offs with a match against T1, where they beat the reigning world champions 3-0. HLE then lost to Gen.G, beat T1 again on class and in the grand final got revenge on Gen.G and became LCK Summer 2024 champions.
Worlds 2024 HLE Long started with a solid win over PSG Talon. Next up was a win over G2 Esports. In the next match for the play-offs Worlds 2024 HLE were close to disaster against FlyQuest, but managed to turn the tide in the first map, which allowed them to close the series 2-1 in their favour. Worlds 2024 opened the playoffs with a match against BLG, where Ledge won 1-3.
They opened the 2025 season with an appearance at the LCK Cup 2025, where they played Baron Group along with T1 and others. There they took the top 2, having won the stage with the score 3-2 and got to the second round of Play-In. Already there they beat DRX, which gave them a place in the play-offs. In the first round of play-offs HLE played against T1, where they defeated the reigning world champions 3-2 in a full-fledged Bo5 match. Next up was a match against Gen.G with a similar outcome: 3-2 in favour of Hanwha Life Esports. In the match for the LCK Cup 2025 Grand Final, they played against DPlus KIA, winning 3-2.
Hanwha Life Esports Champions
HLE utilise a wide pool of characters for the top line. The most popular are Gnar (12 matches, 75% wins), KSante (5 matches, 40% wins), Ornn (4 matches, 75% wins), and Sion (4 matches, 50% wins).
Sejuani (9 matches, 11% wins), Vi (7 matches, 85% wins), Elise (4 games, 75% wins) appear most often in the forest.
Azir (9 games, 55% wins), Sylas (5 matches, 80% wins), Kassadin (5 matches, 80% wins), Akali (4 matches, 100% wins) appear on the centre line.
Shooters are chosen as standard: Zeri (11 matches, 63% wins), Varus (7 matches, 42% wins), Caitlyn (7 games, 57% wins), Lucian (5 matches, 80% wins).
The supporting heroes of choice are Lulu (10 games, 70% wins), Heimerdinger (7 matches, 42% wins), Lux (6 matches, 66% wins), and Nami (4 matches, 75% wins).
Gen.G Form
Let's continue watching Gen.G vs HLE match with the analysis of HLE match form. In this match, they play as an outsider with odds to win around 2.2.
In 2023, Gen.G won LCK Spring 2023 convincingly, leaving no chance for T1 in the grand final. A little less luck at MSI 2023, where Bilibili Gaming sensationally kept the Korean champions out of the finals.
- Gen.G line-up: Kiin, Canyon, Chovy, Ruler, Duno.
At LCK Summer 2023, Gen.G made it to the play-offs without much trouble. During the group stage, the titular Koreans gave up only 2 series, eventually finishing in 2nd place in the group stage table with a score of 16-2.
In their first play-offs match for themselves, Gen.G crushed HLE. HLE 3-0 and now Gen.G are ready to advance to the league finals for the second consecutive time.
The Grand Final is a rematch of the playoffs. Last round Gen.G beat T1 3-2 in a very tough series and I think the final will be the same.
And in the grand finals, they did it too. And it was even easier than in the match to get here: Gen.G became the LCK Summer Split champion by beating T1 3-1.
Worlds 2023 Gen.G started off with a solid win over Gam Esports. It was fast and painful for Gam with 22 minutes and only 5 kills for the Vietnamese.
In a 2-0 basket match, Gen.G played against their counterparts, and by extension, bitter rivals T1. The South Korean derby, like the last 4, ended in favour of Gen.G, as Chovy and his Akali left T1 with nothing to lose.
Gen.G went into the Worlds 2023 play-offs with a score of 3-0. In their final group stage match, they played against G2 Esports and, expectedly easily, ran over the Europeans 2-0.
Being one of the favourites for Worlds 2023, Gen.G couldn't handle the burden of responsibility and lost in the first round of play-offs, Ledgeiv BLG.
In the first match at LCK Spring 2024, Gen.G will be tested against T1. I'm sure the reigning LCK champions will be proud to pass it, as Gen.G are historically good at home against the Worlds 2023 champions. Following that, Gen.G will play Nongshim RedForce, where they should outplay their counterparts with unenviable ease.
After winning the LCK Spring 2024, Gen.G attended their first international tournament of the season - the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 - where they were crowned champions.
Gen.G attended the Esports World Cup 2024 as MSI 2024 champions, where they lost in their first match, finishing in the top 8. At LCK Summer 2024, the team knows no equal and guaranteed themselves an early exit to the play-offs by going there on a 12-0 score.
Gen.G too confidently advanced to the LCK Summer 2024 playoffs, finishing the regular season at 17-1. They immediately advanced to the second round of the play-offs, after which they chose DPlus KIA over T1 as their opponent. In the opening match, Gen.G took down their vis-a-vis in class: 3-0 and an easy passage to the next stage. In the LCK Summer 2024 play-offs, Gen.G played with class, but lost to Hanwha Life Esports 2-3 in the grand finals.
Worlds 2024 Team Long Sogpeg started with a win over WBG in the first round of the Swiss Stage. Next up was another win over LPL residents, this time Top Esports and a 2-0 hammering. LoL World Championship 2024 qualified for the play-offs thanks to a solid 2-0 win over HLE in the basket with a similar scoreline in the match.
In the debut match of the LoL Worlds 2024 play-offs, Gen.G played against FlyQuest. What was supposed to end with an uncontested victory of the top Korean team turned into a full-fledged Bo5, where Gen.G risked to lose to the Americans, but managed to finish with a score of 3-2. Next was T1, where Gen.G Ledge were beaten 1-3 and left the tournament at the TOP-4 stage.
The 2025 season started with an appearance at LCK Cup 2025 in the Elder Group, where they played a very tough Long Corner, playing the group with a score of 3-2. Thanks to the revamped LCK format, this led directly to the semi-final play-offs. There they met Hanwha Life Esports and, being the favourites, lost 2-3. In the match of the lower net with great difficulty managed to beat Nongshim RedForce with a minimum advantage of 3-2. But in the next match, against DPlus KIA, Gen.G showed what is called class, closing their visions with a score of 3-0, without a chance.
Gen.G's most popular champions
The most popular champion on the top line is Gnar (10 games, 90% wins). Jayce has appeared 8 times and has a winrate of 87%. Kenen was played 4 times and won all matches, KSante 4 times and 3 wins, Renekton 4 times and 2 wins.
In the forest were Vi (11 matches, 72% wins), Sejuani (10 games, 80% wins), Wukong (7 matches, 85% wins), Le Sin (6 games, 83% wins).
On the centre line it was Azir (13 games, 69% wins), Gragas (6 matches, 100% wins), Kassadin (5 games, 100% wins), Viktor (4 matches, 75% wins).
The most popular ADC is Lucian (12 matches, 83% wins). Next are Varus (8 games, 87% wins), Caitlyn (5 games, 100% wins), Zeri (4 matches, 75% wins).
Nami (13 matches, 84% winrate). Ashe and Lux have 4 games and 4 wins each.
History of head-to-head meetings Gen.G - Hanwha Life Esports
During the last year the teams played each other 5 times, three times Gen.G won. However, already in the play-offs of LCK Cup 2025, HLE won.
Predicted result of Hanwha Life Esports vs Gen.G at LCK Cup 2025
I'm determined to see a full-fledged bo5 with all the implications. If we talk about the winner, I think it will be Gen.G, who will answer for the loss in the second round of play-offs.
Bottom line: victory Gen.G.
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