LEC teams lose opening Swiss matches at LoL Worlds

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 15/10/2025

Fnatic and Movistar Koi faced opening Swiss defeats at League of Legends Worlds 2025.

The EU teams fell in their Best of 1 series, with Fnatic losing to the LCP’s champions, CTBC Flying Oyster.

MKOI fell to LCK’s KT Rolster, who finished third in the most recent LCK season after an impressive upper bracket victory against Gen.G.

‘Inexcusable’ draft from Fnatic

CFO were always going to be a tough opponent for the LEC’s number 3 seed, but the Asia-Pacific powerhouse was given an easy path to victory due to Fnatic’s bizarre draft.

Fnatic, starting on the red side, were given the ability to counter-pick CFO’s selections, but failed to build a champion pool to challenge CFO.

Shen ‘Driver’ Tsung-Hua, known for his Sion, was allowed the champ. In reaction, Fnatic chose Ezreal on Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp, a historically weak match-up for Ezrael.

Fans were also left questioning the pick of Nautilus into the Caitlyn/Neeko duo, leaving Fnatic fans exasperated before the match had even started.

The overall draft left Fnatic as a low-damage composition, with multiple poor match-ups.

The resultant contest was not close.

By the first true teamfight, CFO had secured the Rift Herald and won the fight.

Leading by objectives, 3k in Gold, and 5-2 in kills they never looked back.

A solo kill from Driver had also helped Sion scale above his opponents, as the champ took control of the match.

CFO won in 32 minutes, behind a 7/1/7 record from Chiu ‘Doggo’ Tzu-Chuan and 11 assists from Ling ‘Kaiwing’ Kai Wing on Neeko.

Movistar KOI lose the late-game again

MKOI’s contest against KT Rolster was much closer, but faced the same ending in around the same amount of time.

MKOI were careful and calculated in the early game as they eked out cumulative advantages in a very competitive early game, which saw first blood and drake traded for grubs in KT’s favour.

The Spanish team were 5-0 in kills, and 3.5k gold up when the decisive moment shifted the momentum of the match.

It came as both teams were grouped up towards Atakhan, with MKOI flirting with the idea of engaging.

They attempted to regroup for the fight, but got their positioning all wrong as they lined up in front of the Orianna Shockwave, which proved decisive in the contest.

Gwak ‘Bdd’ Bo-seong destroyed MKOI in that fight and as a team going forward, as KT took control of the game.

The next teamfight went the same way, with KT guaranteeing the Baron.

At that point, KT Rolster had full control of the match, and they closed the match in 33 minutes behind bdd’s impact and 11 assists from Jeong ‘Peter’ Yoon-su.

The loss for MKOI is yet another example of the roster losing control of matches in the mid-late game.

They will have to find solutions quickly to that problem if they want a long stay at Worlds 2025.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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