DK finishes LCK 2026 in fourth place, securing a seed for the 2026 League of Legends World Championship.

Dplus KIA concludes their 2026 LCK journey with a 1-3 loss to T1 in the lower bracket round 3 of the playoffs, thereby receiving the 4th seed for the World Championship in October.

ShowMaker and his teammates finish the domestic league in 4th place, yet they still accomplish the crucial goal of securing the right to represent LCK at the 2026 World Championship as the 4th seed.

The match against T1 on September 6 was a chance for DK to push deeper into the 2026 LCK Playoffs after a tense lower bracket run. However, facing a T1 side experienced in decisive BO5s, DK could only claim one game before falling 1-3. This result leaves DK in 4th place, while T1 moves on to the lower bracket final against Hanwha Life Esports.

Despite being eliminated, DK's playoff run still had notable highlights.

Before meeting T1, DK faced early elimination when BNK FEARX led 2-0 in the first lower bracket round. However, ShowMaker and his teammates executed a reverse sweep 3-2, winning three consecutive games to survive. Afterwards, they defeated KT Rolster 3-1 on September 4, thereby officially claiming the final LCK slot to the 2026 World Championship.

Therefore, the loss to T1 does not mean DK's season is completely over.

According to the 2026 LCK regulations, if Korea qualifies four spots for Worlds, the team that loses in the third round of the lower bracket becomes the 4th LCK seed. DK is the team that falls into this position after being defeated by T1.

The special aspect lies in the 2026 Worlds format.

Riot Games confirmed that this year's Play-In includes the four lowest-ranked teams from regions with multiple slots that did not win MSI. Meanwhile, Hanwha Life Esports defeated Bilibili Gaming 3-2 in the MSI 2026 final, bringing the title to LCK. This means Korea's 4th seed benefits from the region's international performance and DK will advance directly to the Swiss Stage of Worlds instead of playing in the Play-In.

This is a very important reward for a team that just went through a turbulent playoff run.

The roster consisting of Siwoo, Lucid, ShowMaker, Smash, and Career will have extra preparation time instead of entering do-or-die BO5 matches from the Play-In. For a DK that has shown unpredictable BO5 performances, especially through the comeback against BFX, the break before Worlds can help them fix issues related to stability and game control.