First teams qualify for LoL Worlds 2025 playoffs

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 17/10/2025

The first two teams have qualified for the League of Legends World Championship 2025 playoffs after the conclusion of the 2-0 Swiss contests.

The matches, which featured the four teams to flawlessly make it through the Best-of-1s, concluded with KT Rolster defeating Top Esports, and Anyone’s Legend toppling an impressive CFO.

With top teams Gen.G, T1, BLG, and HLE sitting at a 1-1 record, the opportunity to qualify cleanly through the Swiss stage was a huge opportunity for the four teams.

KT Rolster shock the League scene with 3-0 Worlds run

KT Rolster qualified to Worlds as the third seed in the highly competitive LCK group; however, their path to Worlds was a hugely surprising one after defeating Gen.G in the upper bracket of the LCK playoffs.

With LCK fourth seed being back-to-back Worlds champions, T1, KT were the least fancied LCK team going into the competition, and now the only LCK team to go 3-0.

Their run feels like a strange fate, as their qualification came as a direct result of Gen.G choosing to play against them and subsequently losing in an unexpected fashion.

Yet, KT Rolster do have extremely talented players, with Gwak ‘Bdd’ Bo-sung and Moon ‘Cuzz’ Woo-chan, who were amongst the most decorated individuals in the LCK season.

That skill was evident in the series, with the pair recording a combined 20 kills and 53 assists, in exchange for only 6 deaths.

TES were not prepared for the level of Seo ‘deokdam’ Dae-gil, whose Corki then Ezrael proved hugely impactful in both games of the series.

The bottom laner dominated the contest against TES’s counterpart, Yu ‘JackeyLove’ Wen-Bo, with TES’s outstanding Worlds 2025 star Seo ‘Kanavi’ Jin-hyeok struggling throughout.

KT Rolster move on to the playoffs after the 2-0 series victory, and TES move on to the 2-1 bracket, which promises a tough contest, with so many top teams in the 1-1 bracket.

Anyone’s Legend survive CFO onslaught

Anyone’s Legend were riding high after their victories against LCK teams, Hanwha Life (HLE) and Gen.G.

The victory against LCK champions and MSI champions, Gen.G, was especially a statement of intent.

CFO were no different after demolishing Fnatic, followed by a stunning victory against T1.

CFO’s fearless playstyle, featuring nonstop aggression, engagements, and dives, was impossible to live with for T1 in their Best of 1.

In Game 1, AL got the full CFO treatment, as the LCP team swept over the LPL team like an unstoppable wave.

Tsai ‘HongQ’ Ming-Hong starred again in a 5/0/11 undying performance despite always risking his life in search of more impact.

Game 2 was a different story, as AL managed to largely subdue CFO’s attempts to engage.

CFO were frequently looking for the opportunity to dive on to AL, but faced disadvantaged situations if they did, with CFO not focusing on their lanes to compensate for missing objectives.

The result was AL capturing Rift Herald and the first tower.

A decisive dragon engagement left AL with the advantage, despite Chiu ‘Doggo’ Tzu-Chuan’s Lucian holding a substantial gold lead of about 3.7k over his counterpart at a point.

In the end, AL outscaled CFO and closed the game out in 30 minutes.

Game 3 went back and forth, with CFO more carefully measuring the time to make those engages, and finding some success.

One instance saw CFO win a teamfight in mid with an extremely nerdy Rift Herald spawn, which was used to disguise the dive.

However, as the game went on AL were having greater and greater success, with CFO’s damage failing to keep up with AL’s tanky build.

Cui ‘Shanks’ Xiao-Jun’s LeBlanc, on the other hand, was a destroyer for AL, with the hero’s damage eviscerating CFO to close out the series 2-1.

For CTBC Flying Oyster, everyone knows how they want to play now, but the match against AL showed that teams will still struggle to deal with their style regardless.

They move on to the 2-1 bracket. Whatever match they play next, it will be sure to be entertaining.

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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