T1 qualifies for LoL Worlds and first Swiss Round draw announced

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 14/10/2025

T1 have officially qualified for the League of Legends World Championships 2025 (LoL Worlds) as the LCK’s fourth seeds.

The Korean team defeated the LPL’s Invictus Gaming in the Play-Ins, eliminating them from the tournament and current season.

It means the prestigious T1 will compete in the Worlds 2025 Swiss Stages with the opening round draw now complete.

T1 have won the last two World Championships and are looking for the threepeat as well as Choi ‘Doran’ Hyeon-jun’s first Worlds title.

Many were excited to see notorious IG toplaner Kang ‘TheShy’ Seung-lok take on T1.

However, he seemingly tried too hard to upset the odds and flip things in his team’s favour.

An ill-advised teleport into tower dive in Game 1 threw away the lead IG had beautifully built up and gave T1 the game.

That seemed to be the story of the series, especially with a first-time Varus top pick in the fourth and final game the nail in the coffin.

Despite this, it was a close and entertaining series with both teams fielding some of the game’s most elite players.

Though legendary T1 midlaner Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok seemingly treated it as a warm-up, judging by his post-match comments:

“You could say today was a do-or-die situation. If we lost here, we’d have to go home.

“But looking at it positively, it was also a way for us to kick off and get a feel for Worlds, so it was a pretty good experience.”

LoL Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage Round 1 draw

After T1’s Play-Ins victory, Riot Games has completed the seeded draw for Round 1 of the Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage.

T1 will look to continue their momentum against LTA champions FlyQuest.

It’s been a tough week for FlyQuest after Riot delayed the Worlds song release to remove Bwipo from the music video after his sexist comments.

Fellow LTA team 100 Thieves also have a tough draw in LPL champions Bilibili Gaming.

Meanwhile, Vevo Keyd Stars have an interesting match-up against Asia Pacific’s LCP runners-up Team Secret Whales.

As for EMEA, top seeds G2 Esports have an immediately difficult test in the LPL’s Top Esports.

Movistar KOI also have a very difficult draw in LCK’s KT Rolster.

And Fnatic will have to defeat LCP champions CTBC Flying Oyster, who are one of only three LoL teams to have a win rate above 80% in 2025.

Tournament favourites Gen.G should breeze past PSG Talon.

And a very exciting match-up sees First Stand champions Hanwha Life Esports take on MSI third-place finishers Anyone’s Legend.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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