Defending champions T1 have qualified for Worlds 2026

South Korean esports organization and six-time world champions T1 are officially headed to North America to defend their Worlds 2025 title as the League of Legends team had their ticket punched thanks to a victory today (Sep. 1) by Gen.G.

Gen.G defeated KT Rolster in the upper bracket of the LCK 2026 playoffs ensuring that T1 would make the cut. As T1 were the higher seed, win or lose tomorrow, they’ll advance to the final four. With Mid Season Invitational winners Hanwha Life Esports also guaranteed to land in the top four, any finish outside of fourth would send the fourth place team to Worlds.

T1 head to Worlds 2026 to defend their title

T1 have had a tumultuous year (as ever) yet have managed to make it to the biggest stage in League of Legends yet again. Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, the six-time champion, 11-time Worlds attendee, and company, have seen disappointing performance this year. This manigested within the LCK season, at international competition, such as MSI and the Esports World Cup, and even their own T1 Home Ground event.

Home Ground itself was more a celebration of T1’s past than their potential future success, with some focus drawn away from proceedings and instead left on the controversial benching of Moon "Oner" Hyeon-jun the week prior. While Oner returned for Home Ground, with fans complaining prior that they’d feel hard-done-by if T1’s starting Jungler didn’t appear, the questions about T1’s performance have persisted.

Their latest matchup, against FEARX was a perfect example of the issues that have plagued the team across the year: Inconsistency and mixed results. A 3-2 victory over a Rise Group opponent is hardly the showing that you’d expect from world champions.

And yet for T1, perhaps, this is par for the course. There’s analysts that would point to the fact that T1 for the last few years has never performed to the high standards it’s expected during the regular season, only becoming the championship-winning monster when Worlds is on the line. And it’s hard to argue with six Worlds victories, three of those back-to-back over the previous three events.

Still, even with doubts around the team, you can breathe a sigh of relief if you’re a T1 fan, and dream of the potential fourth-straight, and seventh total world championship. T1 joins Hanwha Lif, Gen.G, Bilibili Gaming, Secret Whales, CTBC Flying Oyster and MVK Esports as the first teams qualified for Worlds 2026.