Dplus vs Gen.G at LCK Cup 2025: To face the beasts of LoL Korea

The Playoff stage of the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) Cup 2025 event reached its final matches. Dplus KIA vs Gen.G Esports play in the lower one. The losers are eliminated from the tournament. Reaching the top 3 in such a strong region is quite an achievement, but this specific case is unique. Only the victory really matters here, as it’s the only way to qualify for First Stand 2025.

Both teams experienced losses to the same opponents. Hanwha Life Esports sent Gen.G to the losers brackets in Round 2 and Dplus in Round 3. Success at the LCK Cup 2025 lower final is an opportunity for revenge — HLE are waiting for their opponents in the grand final.

Considering that Hanwha Life eliminated T1, the League of Legends (LoL) World Champions of 2024, the winners of the match DK vs GEN move from one big challenge to another. Who will face the powerful beasts of LoL Korea in the decisive match of the LCK Cup 2025?

Watch the LCK Cup 2025 match between Dplus KIA vs Gen.G Esports right here, as the stream is embedded below. The official LCK channels on YouTube and Twitch broadcast everything from this tournament as well. The lower-bracket final DK vs GEN wass on Feb. 22.

The stakes of this match are extremely high! The regional success should take the winners to the international scene. Both Dplus and Gen.G are strong enough to be among the world elite of LoL esports.

It was an extremely one-sided macth — to the point where even Hanwha Life Esports should get worried. Gen.G looked absolutely amazing in this LCK Cup 2025 lower final against Dplus KIA.

The action started slowly as if both teams tried to test the water before diving into the fights. Gen.G understood they had nothing to be afraid of, and they destroyed their opponents with almost no chances to strike back.

Only in the beginning of Game 3, there was a glimpse of hope for Dplus KIA. Alas, it was an illusion, and the team is out of the LCK Cup 2025 and the First Stand 2025 qualification process.

Gen.G Esports won in a super dominant way! They advance to the grand final to play against HLE. This battle should be legendary!

The start of this game was very slow. Nothing too significant happened till minute 10. The first team fight was around the second pack of Voidgrubs, and Gen.G earned the objective and two kills. This boost led to a couple of quick lane kills for Gen.G and generally better map control.

When it looked like the game was slipping through the fingers of Dplus, they won a tough fight around the first Dragon. Only one Gen.G Champion survived it. 

Everything went awfully wrong for Dplus around Atakhan. Canyon stole it and earned the buff period for his team. Gen.G delivered two Aces, one after another. The second one finished with the destruction of Dplus’ Nexus.

With another slow start, the early advantage leaned in favor of Gen.G. They farmed somewhat better, and they got all Voidgrubs with two Dragons.

At a later point, Gen.G suddenly looked immensely powerful, even if nothing too drastic happened on the map. They harassed Dplus everywhere, including the jungle of their opponents. Dplus secured Rift Herald and got inspired to start a team fight. Gen.G punished them, killing four Champions.

The dominance of Gen.G Esports intensified after securing the third Dragon and Atakhan. The fight around the newest LoL beast finished with four Dplus players dead.

Disasters for DK could not stop in this game. A Dragon Soul, Baron, and nicely fed Champions — having these on Gen.G’s side was quite enough to demolish the base of Dplus and reach the match point.

This time, Dplus earned two early kills, which is essential for them to recover in this match. Gen.G still responded nicely — the game start was much more active.

When the laning phase settled, Gen.G began to work on their advantage, with a Dragon on their side. However, Dplus traded kills and secured four Voidgrubs.

Gen.G did not care too much about the attempts of their opponents. They developed their Champions properly, and team fights were in their favor. The snowballing effect inevitably led Gen.G to the grand final vs HLE.

Even beyond the natural hype around the LCK Cup 2025 finals and the First Stand 2025 qualification, the match between these LoL teams is super interesting. It’s been quite a while since we witnessed Gen.G Esports and Dplus KIA playing against each other.

LCK Cup 2025 is the first tournament of this season. Gen.G and Dplus were seeded into one group, and their matches were strictly against teams from the other one. Thanks to common successes, the group of GEN and DK finished first, so both teams advanced directly to Round 2 of Playoffs.

Those matches against HLE are probably something Gen.G Esports and Dplus KIA would love not to focus on. Those were long five-game battles, and in the end, both went HLE’s way.

As for the earlier head-to-head record, it is strongly in favor of Gen.G. Dplus lost to this team at the LCK Summer 2024 twice: in the Group and Playoffs. The story at the LCK Spring 2024 is identical.

Both rosters have some changes in the newest season as well. 

It was interesting to see how these transfers can pay off for both teams.

Only five teams from major regions can play at the first LoL international event of 2025 — First Stand. The tournament goes from Match 10 to March 16.

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