Courtesy of LCK

The inaugural cup tournament of League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) was set to kick off Wednesday to pick a team to join the newly created international competition for the globally popularly online game, its organizer said.

Ten Korean teams, including the defending world champion T1, will compete in the LCK Cup that will run through Feb. 23, according to Riot Games.

The winner of the tournament will represent the LCK at the First Stand Tournament, the fresh international competition of the game, League of Legends (LoL), to take place from the 2025 season.

Korea will host the inaugural First Stand Tournament in Seoul in March.

Meanwhile, LCK Cup will adopt the "fearless draft" rule for the first time in the Korean league of LoL as part of efforts to facilitate more diversity in team compositions and game play.

Under the fearless draft system, teams will not be allowed to play the same set of champions twice in a row.

This year's event will be held in a group stage format, with teams divided into two groups to compete against each other.

The top three teams from each group will directly move on to the playoffs, and all of the other remaining teams will compete for three more tickets to the next round in a play-in stage. (Yonhap)