After a year of regional competitive play, the 15th annual League of Legends (LoL) World Championship began in Beijing on Oct. 14, 2025. South Korea’s T1, the defending world champions, faced off against China’s Invictus Gaming in a best-of-five series. The Play-In match resulted in a 3-1 victory for T1 and drew more than 2.5 million peak viewers (excluding Chinese viewership), a metric that is comparable to the average viewership of regular season MLB games on Fox and ESPN, regular season NBA games on TNT and ESPN and recent NHL Stanley Cup Finals games.
Along with T1, this year’s tournament features three teams from each major region: Korea, China, Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. After the play-in match, a 16-team Swiss Stage ensues, and the top eight teams will move on to a single-elimination playoff bracket to determine the world champion.
The tournament also features last year’s world championship runner-ups, China’s Bilibili Gaming, as well as other established franchises like Korea’s Gen.G, Europe’s G2 Esports and Fnatic, and North America’s FlyQuest. LoL Esports is no stranger to record-breaking viewership, as last year’s world championship finals between T1 and Bilibili Gaming drew in 50 million peak viewers worldwide and became the most-watched esports event in history. These numbers may seem high to those unfamiliar with the game, but as in all competitions, the players, dramatic matches, dynasties, underdog stories and personalities draw viewers in and keep them captive.
Here’s a breakdown of some notable storylines as Worlds 2025 ramps up.
Will China finally beat T1?
T1, the 2023 and 2024 reigning world champions, have seemed invincible against the LPL (China’s professional league) at Worlds for 13 years, holding a perfect 12-0 all-time series record against LPL teams. Even in years when China has been the stronger region leading up to Worlds, T1, led by Faker, widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, always finds a way to win against the LPL in elimination matches. Given how strong T1 and the LPL teams look this year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see another showdown deep in the elimination bracket.
Chovy’s first world title seems inevitable
Korean first seed Gen.G’s star player, Chovy, has been heralded as the next face of LoL and considered the best player in the world for the past few years. Though his team has shown recent success on the domestic and international stage, winning multiple LCK (LoL Champions Korea) titles and two Mid-Season Invitational (second-largest annual international event) titles, he has yet to capture an elusive Worlds trophy. This year, Gen.G look poised to lift the trophy with their strategic drafting and strong mechanical skill.
Europe vs. North America
Though it’s widely accepted that Korea and China are LoL’s two strongest regions, the race for third has been a bitter, 15-year battle between Europe and North America, the two western regions. This year, the American and European teams will once again compete in a largely pointless game to see who can make it the furthest in the tournament or pull off an upset against a top Eastern team. FlyQuest, North America’s 1st seed, has shown the strongest performance among western teams in recent international tournaments, but there’s a chance for any of the western teams to make a deep run in the tournament.
Pacific Dark Horse
The Asia-Pacific league is a true wild card region. One team to watch is CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO), the Asia-Pacific first seed, a Taiwanese team featuring a mix of veterans and young talent. CFO showed flashes of brilliance at the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational, pushing T1 (the eventual runner-ups) to a full five-game series. They’ve proven to be competitive against the best teams in the world, and it’ll be exciting to see what CFO can achieve during this tournament.
