Korea's first big competition that precedes each season's start, KeSPA Cup, now has start and end dates along with more details such as participants and more.
KeSPA Cup 2020 will be held in Ulsan, the city which will be the co-host along with Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA). The tournament will begin on Monday, December 21, 2020, and will introduce a major change this year.
Namely, the tournament used to have both professional and amateur teams but it will feature only LCK teams this year due to the introduction of franchising which will kick off with LCK's 2021 season.
Participating teams are:
- Damwon Gaming
- Sandbox Gaming
- Afreeca Freecs
- Gen.G
- Team Dynamics
- hyFresh Blade
- Hanwha Life Esports
- DRX
- KT Rolster
- T1
The tournament will have both group and knockout stages. Each group will consist of five teams and the top three teams will advance to the knockout stage. First place teams will secure a semifinal spot while the second and third seeds will face each other before going up against the group winners.
Finals will be a best of five and will be the only games that will be played offline but there will be no live audience, due to restrictions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The total prize pool is 114 million won which translates to $104,420 with the winners taking home 40 million won or $36,638.