Five rising players to look out for in LCK Challengers 2026

The LCK might be League of Legends’ headline act, but the esports scene’s new wave of generational talent usually lies one tier below it.

The LCK Challengers League (LCK CL) has established itself as the premier proving ground for young players seeking to become the next esports superstars. Compared to previous years, this year’s off-season saw a major refresh, with some of the top names finally getting a shot in tier-one ecosystems across major regions.

With a large turnover of players, here are some names that fans should be paying attention to in the LCK CL this year.

Among the top laners competing in the league this year, most of the attention will go to T1 Challengers player Sim ‘Haetae‘ Su-hyeon. Last year, the 19-year-old recorded a strong 2025 LCK CL campaign, where he and the rest of T1’s academy team finished the season in third place and demolished the competition at the Asia Masters Finals.

Haetae stood out in the league last year for his laning phase and general ability to create solo leads, having clinched a total of 53 solo kills in 2025, according to data from Games of Legends.

With several top lane players leaving tier two this year, Haetae is expected to be among the best performers in his role. The only question mark will be the overall potential of T1.EA’s roster, which saw key members like ADC Shin ‘Smash‘ Geum-jae and Jungler Ha ‘Vincenzo‘ Seung-min leave.

Kim ‘Mihawk‘ Joo-hyeong might not be one of the hottest prospects in the LCK CL, but he’s sure one of the youngest ones. The player has earned himself an opportunity to play at the age of 16.

Joining Nongshim Esports‘ Academy at the start of 2024, MihawK played a total of three official LCK CL games during the 2025 season. This year, though, he’s set to be the starting jungler for the team.

While there isn’t much data about his performance, MihawK seems to be mainly comfortable on skirmish-heavy champions like Lee Sin, Xin Zhao, and Jarvan IV, judging by his soloQ account. He might not be the strongest right now, but his age definitely highlights how much potential Nonshim sees in the player and his development going forward.

Speaking of young players, DRX’s Challengers team has also decided to give Choi ‘AKaJe’ Soo-hyuk an opportunity in tier two. Born in 2008, the quirk about this player’s short esports journey is the fact that he role-swapped twice over the past two years.

Starting out at the end of 2023 on DRX’s trainee roster, AkaJe was initially an ADC player before swapping to the top lane the following year. This change didn’t last long as he moved to mid lane at the start of 2025. He was later promoted to the Challengers team in the summer of 2025, shortly after Korean player Kang ‘kyeahoo‘ Ye-hoo started playing for the main team in the LCK.

It’s clear that the team is committed to AKaJe, considering the 17-year-old has a three-year contract with the team. This is opposed to the team’s one-year deals for other new players, such as top laner Lee ‘Frog‘ Min-hoi. Together with Vietnamese player Trần ‘LazyFeel‘ Bảo Minh, AkaJe is set to form the core for DRX’s future wave of talents.

Joining DN SOOPers this season, Kwak ‘Enosh‘ Kyu-jun comes following an outstanding season on BNK FearX Youth, having won the 2025 LCK CL Season Playoffs.

Unlike his four other teammates, however, Enosh was unable to land an offer in tier-one play, partially due to the presence of a rising star, Nam ‘Diable’ Dae-geun, on the starting roster of the main team.

With a roster of experienced players playing alongside him on DNS SOOPers Challengers, Enosh is set to compete for the top spot once again. That being said, the 21-year-old will have to improve his laning phase as he has been struggling in that department in previous seasons.

Unlike other roles, the support player pool in the LCK CL is home to several players who have already played in tier-one, such as former T1 support Lee ‘Effort‘ Sang-ho and former SK Gaming player Kim ‘Loopy‘ Dong-hyeon.

However, among those who have yet to make their tier-one debut is T1.EA’s support Moon ‘Cloud‘ Hyeon-ho. Raised within the team from 2023, Cloud had a good 2025 season and previously formed one of the best bot lanes in the league when playing alongside now-Dplus bot laner Smash.

Even though he lost one of his strongest members, the 18-year-old will now fight alongside his former T1 trainee teammate, Kim ‘Cypher‘ Yu-jun, who recently got promoted to the LCK CL team.

Fans can tune into the LCK Challengers 2026 Season on live streaming platform SOOP. The 2026 season officially commenced on January 12th with LCK CL Kickoff 2026.