League of Legends Worlds 2025 Grand Final preview: Can KT Rolster upset T1’s mentality monsters?
T1 and KT Rolster will contest the biggest series in the League of Legends calendar on November 9, as the Korean rosters duke it out in the League of Legends Worlds 2025 Grand Final.
For T1, a series victory would mean a historic threepeat, back-to-back-to-back Worlds champions, and a sixth Worlds title for LoL’s indisputable GOAT, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok.
For KT, it would be the most unlikely way for the organisation to win its first League of Legends World Championship.
T1’s experience shines as roster comes to life at best possible time
Like 2024, T1 have gone into Worlds 2025 as the fourth LCK seed. After struggles which even threatened Lee ‘Gumayusi’ Min-hyeong’s place in the team, with Shin ‘Smash’ Geum-jae acting as T1’s sixth man early in the year.
T1’s struggles early in the year led to a 5th-6th placement at the LCK Cup, followed by uncharacteristic losses to BNK FEARX and OKSavingsBank BRION in LCK Rounds 1-2.
However, the LCK powerhouse soon returned to being the LCK’s second strongest team, in qualifying for MSI and making the Grand Final.
While Gen.G’s LCK record made them untouchable, T1’s Round 3-5 display saw them in strong form despite misgivings on their inadequacies, notably Choi ‘Doran’ Hyeon-joon’s positioning mistakes.
Facing a Play-in to make it to Worlds, then dropping two series in the Swiss Stage, fears began to emerge that T1 were not going to be able to tap into that T1 Worlds magic.
A victory over FlyQuest in Swiss, led to two Bo1 losses against CFO and Gen.G, before victories against 100T and MKOI qualified them to the quarter-finals. Yet even getting past that relatively weak opposition required Faker to hard-carry the T1 roster at times.
But as the arena matches have arrived, so has the T1 we all know. Gumayusi, Ryu ‘Keria’ Min-seok, and Mun ‘Oner’ Hyeon-jun have all shown their class in the playoffs, with Gumayusi especially stepping up in T1’s biggest test so far against AL.
Victories against AL and TES have moved T1 onto a Grand Final for which they will be huge favourites.
It seems T1’s Worlds script is going exactly to plan, with the extremely clutch roster ramping up exactly when they need to.
Can KT Rolster upset the script in The Telecom War?
That is in contrast to a Gen.G that crumbled despite their MSI victory and a domestically dominant year against a rampaging KT Rolster team, who were full of confidence after sweeping the Swiss Stage and CFO in the quarters.
For KT Rolster, the job will be to upset that script with their own miracle run that has returned romanticism to the KT Rolster name.
‘The Telecom War’ between SKT/T1 and KT stretches back to 2004, when SKT entered Starcraft Brood Wars to rival KT MagicNS’s all-star lineup.
Following a decade of rivalry in the Starcraft BW/SCII space, the War broke through to a new front in League, but T1 have dominated the League rivalry.
Despite KT itself attracting significant talent to the organisation, such as now coach Go ‘Score’ Dong-bin, they have always been the bridesmaid and not the bride at Worlds. Always good enough coming into Worlds, but not quite there at the event itself.
Out of all the KT Rolster rosters to make it to the Worlds Grand Final, this one felt the least likely. Yet they have done so while only dropping a single game.
Gwak ‘Bdd’ Bo-seong has shown exactly why he was considered a prodigy when he first broke through for CJ Entus.
His emotional reaction to making the Grand Final, combined with commanding midlane performances, has gained KT Rolster many new fans.
bdd’s strong midlane performances have consistently given KT Rolster strong map and vision control, allowing for KT Rolster to be in favourable positions for objectives and teamfights.
Yet, what has stood out about KT’s run is that bdd and Moon ‘Cuzz’ Woo-chan are not on an island performance-wise.
Jeong ‘Peter’ Yoon-su and Lee ‘PerfecT’ Seung-min have also stood out for KT in their run, which saw them make Worlds by the thinnest of margins, after defeating Gen.G in the upper-bracket of the LCK Finals before two 0-3 losses to HLE and Gen.G saw them eliminated.
That being said, the brutal truth is that KT had a relatively straightforward road at Worlds prior to the Gen.G contest, and many may attribute their victory over the LCK champions as more about Gen.G’s mental frailty.
No such frailty will exist when T1 is the opposition, as T1’s Dr Mundo pick against Anyone’s Legend characterised.
Viral Mundo moment underlines T1’s Worlds ‘magic’
The video showing T1’s team communications has gone viral, with the team discussing the best Jungle pick for Oner in Game 5 against Anyone’s Legend in their quarter-final.
The clip shows Faker, primarily, and Im ‘Tom’ Jae-hyeon convincing Oner to pick Dr Mundo, despite the legendary jungler not playing the champion.
Tom goes on to teach Oner how to jungle raptors, and when to use his ultimate, with Faker telling Oner to play cautiously.
Oner later revealed in an interview with daum.net that he hadn’t practised the hero, and was not aware of his abilities, stating, “In the fifth set, I picked Dr Mundo, and it was actually a pick I hadn’t practised before. At that time, we chose not to leave any regrets that we would lose at ban/pick.”
“In fact, I didn’t know the exact skills, so I read the skill tooltips while I was ban/picking, and I asked the coach about the runes or item trees.” (translated)
T1 would go on to win the all-or-nothing contest, with Oner’s Dr Mundo recording a 0-5-6 stat line in the classic series.
The absurd situation, of T1 so calmly discussing playing a champion that their jungler does not play, in Game 5 of a Bo5 against Anyone’s Legend, has reinforced what many see as T1’s Worlds invincibility.
However, it’s no mistake that the clip came out of T1. With Gen.G struggling to overcome the pressure of the Worlds stage, T1 are fully accustomed to what it takes to win the competition as back-to-back champions.
The clip reinforces that they are relatively immune to pressure, in comparison to their rivals, with Faker showing his in-game knowledge to prioritise the draft over individual player comfort.
In this case, it is not T1’s magic but T1’s mentality that was on display.
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