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The regional battles of League of Legends 2025 Season are reaching their end. The LCK 2025 Season has one last match left, which will determine the LCK 2025 Season champion.
Hanwha Life Esports and Gen.G will play for the LCK 2025 Season title. The HLE vs Gen.G match will take place on the 28th of September in Bo5 format.
Let's try to find out which of the pair Gen.G - HLE will be stronger and win the LCK 2025 Season title.
Let's go.
How the bookies view it: Gen.G in favour
Before the Long match between Gen.G and HLE, Gen.G is expected to be the favourite. Bookmakers give odds of 1.4 for the victory of the best team in South Korea. The victory of HLE is estimated at odds of 3.4.
Gen.G form: What to expect from Gen.G
In 2023, Gen.G won the LCK Spring 2023, leaving no chance for T1 in the grand finals. A little less fortunate 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. In the grand-final Gen.G again played against HLE and again Ledgeili in a full-fledged bo5, taking the top 2 of LCK Cup 2025.
On the Road to MSI 2025, Gen.G came through with flying colours. They did not lose a single series in the regular season, finishing 18-0. After such a great performance, Gen.G made it to the Road to MSI 2025 top set match where they outscored HLE 3-2, advancing to the MSI 2025.
Mid-Season Invitational 2025 Knockout Stage Gen.G Long Team started off with a solid win over G2 Esports (3-1). Next up was a tough match against Anyone's Legend, where Gen.G won 3-1. Gen.G then defeated T1 in the Top Grid Final 3-2 and then won the Grand Final by a similar score to become the champions of the Mid-Season Invitational 2025.
After triumphing in Canada at the Mid-Season Invitational 2025, Gen.G earned another title, this time in Riyadh, winning the Esports World Cup 2025.
The MSI 2025 and Esports World Cup 2025 champions won the first group stage 18-0 and then played the second stage 29-1. Phenomenal play in the group stage took Gen.G straight into the second round of the top set, where Gen.G unexpectedly lost to KT Rolster. In the small final of the lower grid, Gen.G faced their most principled opponent, T1. The match between T1 and Gen.G ended 3-2 in favour of Gen.G. Gen.G then defeated KT Rolster 3-0 to advance to the grand final.
Most Popular Gen.G champion
The most popular champion on the top line is Gnar (10 games, 90% wins). Jayce appeared 8 times and the winrate was 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.
Hanwha Life Esports form: What to expect from HLE
HLE, being a solid mid-tier at the time, only started to enter the late stages of regular splits from 2023 onwards. Prior to that, in the 2022 season, HLE were the worst team in the league, twice finishing in 10th place in the regulars.
They managed to improve their results in 2023 after a major roster change. Two reigning world champions joined the team, which significantly strengthened the club.
- HLE roster: Zeus, Peanut, Zeka, Viper, Delight.
With the addition of Zeka and Kingen, the HLE team became noticeably stronger. So much so that in the spring split of LCK 2023 they were in the top 4. The latest addition was Grizzly, a jungler who moved up from the academic squad.
The changes did seem to have an effect. HLE finished top-3 in the regular season, which, considering the competition from teams like Dplus and T1, can be considered a good achievement.
In the first play-offs match HLE "warmed up" on DRX. Formally, the reigning world champions could not oppose HLE's plans, and the match was confidently closed with a score of 3:0.
However, then things didn't go so smoothly: HLE met Gen.G and lost with a score of 0:3. The team dropped to the bottom set of the play-offs, but that didn't help them advance any further.
Hanwha Life Esports played KT Rolster in the first match of the last chance grid. The pressure proved too much and HLE were swept away: 0-3, eliminated from the play-offs and, at the same time, losing their chance to qualify for Worlds 2023.
They tried to qualify for the Worlds through the regional finals, but again failed. The team finished in the top 3 at the LCK season finals, failing to capitalise on either of their two attempts to qualify for Worlds: first losing 1-3 to KT Rolster and then to Ledge or Dplus KIA with the same result.
Hanwha Life Esports finished the LCK 2024 Spring Split in the top 3. Once again, the team fell one series short of advancing to the international LAN tournament.
In the first and second rounds of LCK 2025, they had a decent showing, taking second place with a 13-3 overall score.
At the Road to MSI 2025 tournament, they Long Cogged from the top net final against Gen.G, where they led 2-0, but suffered a Reverse Sweep and lost 2-3. Next up, a scoreless loss against T1 (0-3) and HLE were out of MSI 2025.
LCK Season 2025 (aka Summer Split) HLE did quite well: first they finished top 2 in the first group stage, then the same position in the second group stage, thus ending up in the second round of play-offs. In the first match of the play-offs HLE defeated their principal rival T1 3-0. In the grand final match, they easily defeated KT Rolster 3-0 to advance to the grand final.
Most Popular HLE Champions
HLE use 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).
Supporting heroes are Lulu (10 games, 70% wins), Heimerdinger (7 matches, 42% wins), Lux (6 matches, 66% wins), and Nami (4 matches, 75% wins).
Gen.G - HLE Head-To-Head.
The teams have played each other 5 times in the 2025 season. HLE failed to win even once.
Predicted result for the match Gen.G - HLE at LCK 2025 Season Grand-Final
HLE look ultimates in this play-offs and I am sure they will show a good game against such a formidable opponent. However, given the history of head-to-head encounters, it will be very difficult to win and, to me, the main problem is the centre line. The 2022 champion Zeka cannot compete on equal terms with Chovy, even though the latter is not in prime form. All in all, it should be a hot match and I will risk to call HLE the winner despite the above mentioned problems.
Prediction: HLE win.
