Reigning League of Legends World Champions T1 have qualified for the Esports World Cup after defeating Dplus Kia in the Korean qualifiers.
T1 had to settle for third in last year’s Esports World Cup and will be hoping to add yet another trophy to their collection.
T1 glided through the Korean qualifiers, sweeping both HANJIN BRION and BNK FEARX before facing DK in the Upper Bracket final.
An amazing comeback saw T1 close out the series and win 3-1 to qualify for the $2 million tournament later this year.
It looked like the series would go to five games as 31 minutes into Game 4, DK were 6k gold up and on Soul point.
Yet, just seven minutes later, T1 had won the series.
A huge flash Tibbers by Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok helped T1 win the teamfight at the next Drake, securing the team a lot of bounty gold.
Then in the next fight, a fantastic engage by Mun ‘Oner’ Hyeon-jun earned T1 a clean ace and the series.
The series made Oner’s omission from Korea’s Asian Games LoL 2026 roster even more baffling.
DK will now face Hanwha Life Esports in Korea’s other EWC Qualifier match.
Esports World Cup Qualified LoL Teams
- Gen.G
- T1
- Anyone’s Legend
- JD Gaming
- G2 Esports
- Karmine Corp
- Team Secret
- Sentinels
The online qualifiers for EWC LoL 2026 have almost concluded, with half of the spots now filled in this year’s expanded 16-team tournament.
Gen.G automatically qualified after winning last year’s EWC title and will be joined by T1, the winner of HLE vs DK, and the eventual LCK Road to MSI Champion.
From the LPL, Anyone’s Legend and JDG secured their places through China’s online qualifiers and will be joined by the LPL Split 2 Playoffs winners.
Meanwhile, G2 Esports and Karmine Corp won the EMEA EWC qualifiers and will be joined by the eventual LEC Spring Playoffs champions.
Sentinels won the NA qualifiers while Team Secret qualified from APAC.
That then leaves slots for the eventual APAC, LCS, and CBLoL champions, as well as one Brazilian qualifier winner.
Who else do you expect to qualify for EWC this year? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord.
And see why the Gen.G CEO criticised KeSPA’s Asia Games LoL team selection process.
Comments