League of Legends Worlds 2025 recap

League of Legends World Championship, also known as LoL Worlds, is the biggest event in the game’s esports calendar and caps off the season with a bang. It is also one of the largest events in esports overall, and the 2025 edition had a lot to live up to.

With 17 teams from around the world competing for the League of Legends Worlds 2025 trophy, there were millions of eyes on the event between October 14 to November 9. LoL fans were treated to epic battles and upsets alike, while the best in the world fought tooth and nail for the $5 million prize pool.

Here’s everything you need to know about LoL Worlds 2025, which was spread across China, including its biggest storylines and who walked away as champion.

Prior to the Swiss Stage, T1 faced Invictus Gaming as the fourth seeds of Korea and China, respectivel,y during the play-in stage. This was a change to the League of Legends Worlds format from 2024, leading to fewer matches overall. T1 won 3-1 and marked Invictus as the first team to be eliminated from the competition.

Fnatic and PSG Talon would be the next to tumble out. While Fnatic would show some signs of life against its Spanish rivals, MKOI, it would ultimately be a 2-1 loss that would see them bow out. Both Fnatic and PSG Talon left the competition without a victory.

Vivo Keyd, 100 Thieves, and Secret Whales fared a little better, managing a win each, but found themselves joining Fnatic and PSG Talon after four matches each. Anyone’s Legend and KT Rolster made it through the Swiss Stage unscathed, while the defending champion, T1, barely scraped into qualification after a rough group stage that saw them with a 3-2 record.

Last year’s runners-up, Bilibili Gaming, only just missed out on qualifying for the next stage, in ninth. By the end of the Swiss Stage, the final table looks like so:

With eight teams left, the League of Legends World Championship entered its knockout stage, beginning with its quarter-finals. All eyes were on the struggling T1, who faced off against the unbeaten Anyone’s Legend, but in one of the closest bouts of the tournament, Faker’s T1 came out on top 3-2 to face Top Esports in the semi-final after its 3-1 victory over G2.

Gen.G and the undefeated KT Rolster surged into the semi-finals, with Rolster remaining undefeated as they battled past Gen.G with a strong 3-1 victory. Things started to finally go smoothly for T1, with a 3-0 victory over Top Esports.

The League of Legends Worlds finals was then set between two of Korea’s top rivals, T1 and KT Rolster. It was the great contest that everyone had hoped for, coming down to the wire, but with T1 emerging victorious in the final teamfights, they were crowned champions of LoL Worlds 2025.

Here is how the knockout stage ended up:

T1 made League of Legends Worlds history by being the first team to win three in a row, with talisman, Faker, having six to his name. It was an unlikely victory, considering how rigorous the road to the trophy was for T1, especially compared to its rivals, who cruised through to the final. While Faker will, once again, take the plaudits, his teammate, Gumayusi, was awarded as the Finals MVP.

As is typical of LoL Worlds, there have been some interesting developments with the meta in the 2025 edition of the event. Xin Zhao was the most used champion, playing in 28 games, and enjoyed a respectable 60.7% win rate.

Yunara was the most-banned champion. She suffered 56 bans, but in the 15 games she was picked, she accomplished a 66.7% win rate. Although not as heavily banned, Poppy won 76.92% of the 13 matches she played, earning her status as the fourth most banned champion.

While not topping any status, K’Sante and Ryze were the most picked champions in top and mid lane, respectively, although both ended up with dismal win rates of below 40%. The most picked champions and their win rates are as follows, with data coming from gol.gg:

It should also be noted that LoL Worlds 2025 was played on Patch 25.20, which was not the same patch that the wider community was using at the same time (25.21).

With the League of Legends World Championship winners crowned, the 2025 edition is in the books as another edition filled with drama and intrigue. It had slightly lower peak viewers than last year’s record-breaking event, at 6.7 million viewers, although this could have been due to its host being China, with European and North American time zones being less conducive for viewers.

T1 once again proved why it’s the biggest name in the sport, winning a historic, consecutive hat-trick of LoL Worlds trophies. The event proved that competitive League of Legends is healthier than ever and, despite a change in format, Worlds is still one of the biggest draws in esports.