| KeSPA Cup | |
|---|---|
 2025 KeSPA Cup logo | |
| Genre | Esports |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Location | Asia |
| Country | South Korea |
| Inaugurated | 2005 |
| Most recent | 2025 |
| Website | http://e-sports.or.kr/kespacup/ |
TheKeSPA Cup (Korean: 케스파컵) is anesports event organized by theKorean eSports Association. As of the 2025 edition, the tournament is organized forLeague of Legends. Until 2016, the tournament was also organized forStarCraft II.
The first KeSPA cup was hosted in 2005 as a tournament to allow professionalStarCraft teams to play against amateur teams. Events were also held forSpecial Force,Kartrider, andFreeStyle Street Basketball. The second event was held in 2007 atSejong University and also includedWarCraft III andCounter-Strike.[1]
In 2014, seven years since the last event, KeSPA Cup was brought back for its modern iteration and it has been held every year since.StarCraft II was the only game that had a tournament in the relaunch of the initiative and it featured 16 of the year's best players playing for 8 millionSouth Korean won.[2] The following year, two tournaments for StarCraft II were held, the first in May and the second in July.League of Legends was added as one of the events in 2015.[3]
In 2016, Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft became the first non-KoreanStarCraft player to win a major Korean tournament in sixteen years after winning the 2016 KeSPA Cup. The previous non-Korean champion wasGuillaume Patry, who won the firstOnGameNet StarLeague in 2000.[4]
The format for the originalStarCraft KeSPA Cup was a team based event where professional teams under KeSPA played against amateur teams. There have been no more tournaments held for StarCraft since 2007.
| Year | Name of Tournament | Winners |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | The First KeSPA Cup | Samsung |
| 2007 | The Second KeSPA Cup | MBC Game Hero |
KeSPA Cup was relaunched with aStarCraft II tournament. All of the tournaments are all part of theStarCraft II World Championship Series and thus award WCS points to the participants. The format for the tournament is a sixteen player elimination tournament starting with group stages and entering a playoffs round in the round of 8.
| Year | Name of Tournament | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Prize pool (KRW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2014 KeSPA Cup | Joo "Zest" Sung-wook | 4–1 | Kim "herO" Joon-ho | 80,000,000 |
| 2015 | GiGA Internet 2015 KeSPA Cup Season 1 | Kim "herO" Joon-ho | 4–3 | Park "Dark" Ryung-woo | 25,000,000 |
| 2015 | LOTTE Homeshopping 2015 KeSPA Cup Season 2 | Eo "soO" Yoon-su | 4–1 | Park "Dark" Ryung-woo | 25,000,000 |
| 2016 | 2016 KeSPA Cup | Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft | 4–0 | Cho "Trap" Sung-ho | 55,000,000 |
League of Legends was added as a recurring event in 2015. Fourteen teams competed in the 2025 edition, including all ten teams of theLeague of Legends Champions Korea and four invited teams.[5]
| Year | Winners | Score | Runners-up | Prize pool (KRW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | ESC Ever | 3–0 | CJ Entus | 100,000,000 |
| 2016 | ROX Tigers | 3–1 | Kongdoo Monster | 100,000,000 |
| 2017 | KT Rolster | 3–2 | Longzhu Gaming | 100,000,000 |
| 2018 | Griffin | 3–0 | Gen.G | 102,000,000[6] |
| 2019 | Afreeca Freecs | 3–0 | Sandbox Gaming | 158,000,000[7] |
| 2020 | Damwon Gaming | 3–0 | Nongshim RedForce | 144,000,000[8] |
| 2021 | DWG KIA Challengers | 3–1 | Fredit BRION Challengers | 30,000,000[9] |
| 2022 | Not held | |||
| 2023 | ||||
| 2024 | OKSavingsBank Brion | 3–1 | Dplus KIA | 80,000,000[10] |
| 2025 | T1 | 3–2 | Hanwha Life Esports | 100,000,000[11] |
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| First Stand Tournament | |||||||
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1 The 2020 Mid-Season Invitational was cancelled and replaced by the2020 Mid-Season Streamathon due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. | |||||||
