Round one: Rapper Selection Round

After sending in their audition clips, those selected by the production crew attended the Rapper Selection Round; as a safety precaution from the COVID-19 pandemic, the contestants were divided into groups of thirty with one producer, (with the exception of Dynamic Duo and GroovyRoom), assigned to judge them individually.^[14] Each contestant performed a short a cappella rap in front of the producer and other contestants. The producer(s) then provided an in-depth evaluation of the contestant, and determined if they advanced to the next round. Unlike previous seasons, where the producer typically handed the SMTM neck chain to the contestant, contestants who received a pass simply took a neck chain hanging on a nearby rack.^[15] About 122 contestants would advance to the next round.

Notable Rappers from the Rapper Selection Round

Round two: Producer Performances and 60 Second Team Trials

The second round began with the Producer Performances, in which the producers performed in front of the contestants to convince the contestants to join their team. The performances were later used to pick which producer team they would face during the Team Diss Round, based on the contestants’ votes.

Previously known as the One Minute Rap Round, the 60 Second Team Trials allowed each contestant one minute to rap in front of all judges. At least one team of judges were required to pass the contestant in order to proceed with the team selection process. However, the producer team(s) could subsequently give a "FAIL" to the contestant after the performance if they thought that the contestant was not qualified to join their team. In this case, the contestant would then choose a different producer team that they wanted to join. If the contestant received an "ALL FAIL" from either the first or second judging, they were eliminated from the show. Only 40 out of the 122 remaining contestants would advance to the next round, with 10 contestants on each producer team.^[16] A "revival round" for 8 eliminated contestants was held for those producer teams that did not have a full 10-member team.

Producer Performances^[17]

- Indicates new song performed for the first time in the show, which was to be part of the season's discography.

Notable rappers at the 60 Second Team Trials

Selected rappers in the Revival Round

  Received a "PASS" or "ALL PASS" from the producer team(s)
  Received a "FAIL" from producer team(s). If the contestant received an "ALL FAIL", they were eliminated from the show
  Initially received a "PASS" from the producer team(s) but was given a "FAIL" after the producer team(s) decided not to pick the contestant for their team. If all producer teams decided to give a "PASS/FALL", the contestant was eliminated from the show

Round three (first part): Leader Selection Cypher

Before this round, the 40 remaining contestants each had a sticker pasted on them, based on the number passes each had obtained during the performance portion of the 60 Seconds Team Trials. Contestants with an "all pass" had a "Top" sticker, those with 2 or 3 passes had a "Middle" sticker, those with 1 pass had a "Bottom" sticker, and those that were revived from the Revival Round had a "Brink of Elimination" sticker.

All members of each producer team participated in a rap cypher, in which contestants performed freestyle raps based on the beat they wanted to do it with. At the end of this round, each producer team chose one contestant to be eliminated from the show, and selected their three best performers to serve as group leaders for the next round.

Round three (second part): Triple Crew Battle

The three crew leaders from each producer team each recruited two team members to form crews and compete in a Triple Crew battle. Each crew chose a beat or song from the producer team that they performed in front of the producer teams. The producers then ranked the groups based on their performances. The crew with the best performance had all three contestants advance to the next round, while the second-placed crew had one contestant eliminated, and the third-placed crew had two contestants eliminated.

  Indicates first-placed crew with all members advancing to the next round
  Indicates second-placed crew with only two members advancing to the next round
  Indicates third-placed crew with only one member advancing to the next round
  Indicates the eliminated contestant(s)

Round four: Soundtrack Battle

This round was previously known as the Crew Song Mission. Members of each producer team split into two crews – with the first placed crew from the previous round performing together – while the remaining members of the second and third placed crews formed a new group and performed together. The producer teams then picked new crew leaders based on their performances in the last round. Prior to this round, the producer teams held team meetings in which the producers introduced the beat they would use this round and would be performed in front of the Producer Teams. At the end of each group performance, each producer team eliminated two contestants from the losing crew of each producer team, while the members of the first placed crew advanced to the next round. The remaining crew members had their songs officially released as part of the season's official discography.

  Indicates the winning team, with all group members advancing to the next round, and their song included in the season's official discography
  Indicates the losing team, with only one member of their team advancing to the next round and joining the winning crew in the season's official discography.
  Indicates the eliminated contestant(s)

Round five: Team Diss Battle

The winning producer team from the Producer Performances stages (Dynamic Duo x Bewhy) could choose their opposing team for this round. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only the eliminated contestants from previous rounds were available to serve as the audience and voters for this round. Each member of the audience voted for only 1 producer team after each rap battle. The losing producer team had its producers choose 1 contestant to eliminate, while the winning producer team had all members advance to the next round.

  Indicates the winning team, with all contestants advancing to the next round.

  Indicates the winning contestant/s.

  Eliminated from the show.

Round six: first live performances

Following the results of the Team Diss Battles, winning teams competed against each other and losing teams competed against each other at the live performances. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show's producers held an open online application prior to this round, in which they selected a limited number of people, in addition to previously eliminated rappers, to serve as live audience members and voters for this round. All 4 producer teams held the mic selection for two of their own contestants to determine who would perform at the live stage; one contestant from each producer team would be eliminated. There were two rounds in the voting process. The first round involved voting on each of the two stages in one round; after the first round of voting was over, the second round of voting occurred, in which the live audience could only vote for one contestant. All of the contestants' performance money earnings were then accumulated to their respective producer teams at the end of the round. The winning producer team in each team matchup had its members advance to the semi-final round, while the losing producer team eliminated one more contestant.

  Indicates the winning performance, which advanced to the semi-final round.

  Eliminated from the show through mic selection prior to this round.

  Indicates the winning producer team, all of whose contestants advanced to the semi-final round.

  Indicates the losing producer team, which was required to eliminate one contestant at the end of the round.

Round Seven: semi-final performances

The top 8 contestants were paired up for the semi-final round. At the end of the first live performances, MC Kim Jin-pyo presented eight cards with each card representing one contestant. From there, he selected four cards that had bonuses in them, indicating that the contestant called in would have a chance to pick his/her opponent for this round. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, like with the previous round, the show's producers held an open online application prior to this round in which they selected a limited number of people, in addition to previously eliminated rappers, to serve as live audience members and voters for this round. Each of the eight semi-finalists had a solo performance with a guest performer(s). Similar to the first Live Performances round, the same two-round voting process occurred in this round. The contestant who received more performance money after two rounds of voting against their match-up advanced to the finals, while the loser got eliminated. In the event that all contestant(s) in one team lost in their respective match-up(s), their entire producer team was eliminated from the show.

  Indicates the winning performance and will advance to the final round.

  Eliminated from the show. If all contestant(s) in one team lost their respective match-ups, their entire producer team is eliminated as well from the show.

Round eight: final performances and special performances (live episode)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this season's final round had pre-recorded performances, with a live announcement of performance results and season winner based on voting results from both the pre-finals online evaluation team (60% of the votes) and live SMS voters (40% of the votes). Prior to the final episode, the show's producers established a pre-finals online evaluation team where they selected people to serve as virtual audience members and voters for this round. They had a chance to watch and vote for the pre-recorded performances three hours before the final episode was aired.^[20] The four finalists also met up the night prior to the final round to determine their order of performances.^[21] The final round was divided into two parts: the first part of the finals featured all four finalists each having a solo performance with a special guest performer(s). After all four finalists performed, a two-round voting process from both the pre-finals online evaluation team and live SMS voting was held, and the performance ranking based on the pre-online votes was announced. In the second part of the finals, the four finalists each had one last performance with the producer(s) and/or with a special guest performer(s), with the same two-round voting process and announcement of performance ranking held after the final performances. The contestant who earned the most cumulative performance money from both the pre-finals online evaluation team voters and live SMS voters in all two performances was the season's champion, receiving ₩100,000,000 in cash, a sports car, and the launch of a one-year project label for their music activities, totaling up to ₩500,000,000. The final episode also included special performances from eliminated contestants with their songs included in this season's official discography.

  Indicates winner

  Indicates the 1st runner-up

  Indicates the 2nd and 3rd runner-ups