T1 beats KT Rolster to win LoL Worlds for the sixth time

LoL Contributor

Publish Date: November 10, 2025

T1 beats KT Rolster to win LoL Worlds for the sixth time

The 2025 League of Legends World Championship came to a close with T1 winning the LoL Worlds Finals against KT Rolster with a game score of 3 to 2, granting the team their 6th and 3rd consecutive Worlds title. Let’s dive in and see how the Grand Finals played out.

Series breakdown: Valiant fighters against plot armor

The 2025 LoL Worlds Finals were a tense and very close series. Not only did it go to 5 games, KT came close to winning the whole thing 3-0. Unfortunately for them, the narrative dictates that T1 powers up as they get deeper through the World Championship, and they were very committed to proving that statement. KT played a masterful five games as well. In the end, they had a better early game through the series, but T1 was a better teamfighting team today. When the fights were complex and were made and broken by margins and details, it was T1 that came out on top.

Game 1: KT’s heartbreak

Everything in the first game’s draft went the way everyone predicted, for both teams.

KT forced T1 to ban both Azir and Orianna, then opened with a Wukong pick as the jungler they most like to pair with Rumble.
T1 responded with Taliyah, Faker’s next-favorite champion, and Varus as Gumayusi’s marksman of comfort.
KT then locked said Rumble, alongside Ryze as the best remaining mid lane mage. Most top laners avoid blind picking Rumble into a potential Ambessa or Galio counterpick, but PerfecT doesn’t mind the match-up.
T1 then secured Xin Zhao, the most versatile jungler, and opened round 2 with Poppy. Poppy is Keria’s signature pick, even though this was the first time he got to play her this Worlds.
KT rounded up their comp with Ashe, Deokdam’s best marksman, with Braum for a solid pairing. Doran closed it out by securing his lane match-up with Ambessa.

Onto the Rift

Comfort picks for everyone, everything according to the game plans. However, T1 kicked off the series by making many early mistakes in a row. Oner attempted to farm the bot side scuttle against a Braum bot lane with priority. Next up was a messy exchange. Deokdam overextended trying to kill Gumayusi, failed, and got a 1 for 1 kill against Keria instead. Guma teleported in to try to un-freeze his lane, got immediately ganked, and died.

Lastly, Doran and Oner attempted a top lane gank without respective KT’s roam in response. These mistakes ended up putting KT over 2k gold ahead by minute 18. However, that would be when T1 found a way to win two teamfights back to back from that position. From that point on, T1 was ahead and never let go of their lead. Without the dragon fight that went the way of T1 at minute 18, KT very well could have taken game 1.

Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

Game 2: KT’s hesitant counter-punch

Game 2 was a game of individual mistakes and a long-winded back and forth. KT definitely made the bigger share of mess-ups, and it’s possible that the nerves of the biggest stage combined with their first game loss started to get to them. However, they made up for it by navigating the map better for the entirety of the game. Cuzz gave KT a lead by always being at the right place at the right time to successfully counter ganks.

The third drake scenario from game 1 happened once again, and T1 started yet another comeback. Deokdam then worsened things further by overextending for farm in the mid lane and dying. Thanks to a combination of PerfecT’s fight navigation, Cuzz’s map decisions, and BDD’s mechanics, KT held on to their lead this time. Despite more mistakes, they kept the momentum going, and evened the series 1 to 1. Additionally, this loss makes Sylas end Worlds as the only champion to go winless with 5 or more games played.

Game 3: Full speed ahead for the KT hype train

Game 3 was the slowest game so far, and this was just what KT wanted. The underdogs drafted a triple front line including two heavy-scaling tanks in K’Sante and Dr. Mundo. Against that, T1’s comp would lack steam if they didn’t get an early lead. This was in fact the first time that T1 was ahead early on, but only by a slim margin. Though nowhere enough to put pressure on KT, who looked calm and collected through it all.

The victory in game 2 seemed to have done wonders for their composure, and one big teamfight win on the fourth drake was all they needed to gain control of the game and never lose it.

Game 4: T1’s 1-2 comfort zone

Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

In the next game, KT went back to winning the early fights. Only this time, both compositions worked in a way that they simultaneously got what they wanted. T1 was excellent once they had control of an area, while KT could force them back if they got there first. This resulted in T1 contesting every objective, and each time losing members but winning the smite fight. Eventually, Mordekaiser stopped being strong enough to bully T1 away, and KT lost control from there. Without him to facilitate KT’s access to their opponents, they couldn’t reach through an entire peeling comp. After whittling them down, T1 could press their go button, and it was curtains for their Telecom rivals from there.

Game 5: Fate’s Call

The final game of the 2025 LoL Worlds was also the most one-sided of the series. PerfecT started the game going 0/4/0 from repeated ganks. KT had a scaling comp with Smolder, but fell much further behind than they should. Doran then gifted several kills back while achieving nothing in the process. Thankfully for T1, though, their bot lane kept them in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the game.

Miss Fortune’s ultimates were deadly for KT, both thanks to Keria’s Solar Flares and KT’s refusal to get out of them. The combined efforts of Smolder’s scaling and Doran’s assistance weren’t enough to save KT. With their strongest performance of the series (save for one member), T1 wins game 5 and the World Cup.

The players’ form: Cuzz and Guma’s showdown

Gumayusi is the 2025 LoL Worlds Finals MVP! This title is about prestige. The winner of that title gets to receive a Prestige World Champion skin on top of his regular World Champion pick. Last year, it was Faker who received the Finals MVP title and a Prestige Sylas skin, adding a ninth skin to his name. This also means more money through skin sales in addition to T1’s share of the prize pool.

Aside from game 3, Guma was stellar in the series. In the first game, his Varus arrows were point-and-click, and he was the reason KT’s fans were scared in the second. Gumayusi was then T1’s driving force in their last two wins, dealing much more damage than KT could handle. Keria was nearly as good and a key part of his success. However, the support got brought down by making one too many mistakes. In the third game, Keria missed Rakan’s follow-up knock-up on a target that he charmed, which lost T1 a pivotal teamfight. On the other side, it was Cuzz and BDD who had a fantastic series. This duo was the key factor towards each of KT’s wins, and never the reason behind their losses. Cuzz and BDD played solidly in each of the five games.

Image Source: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

The less impressive performances

The same cannot be said of all players in the series, though. Two players in particular had a singularly bad showing today.

First, we have Deokdam who managed to be subpar in all five games. The marksman was nowhere near his usual level on Ashe, wasn’t a factor on Ezreal or Corki, and did far too little as Ziggs. Deokdam didn’t do much on Caitlyn either, but that was mostly a result of Peter failing to protect him.

Last, and certainly also least in terms of quality of play, Doran. Just like Deokdam, T1’s top laner also had five bad games. Except that it’s harder to have good games when the team is losing. Doran lost the Ambessa-Rumble match-up despite being in his favor, so it was expected that he would lose the Sion-Rek’Sai match-up even further as that one favored PerfecT. The top laner did the least out of all of T1’s members in games 3 and 4, and they won the latter without him.

Game 5 was by far the worst. Doran was set up to be far ahead from the get-go, and died time after time for no reason. T1’s top laner went to the weirdest places, and it always resulted in one more shut down for KT. T1 won game 4 without Doran, but they won game 5 in spite of him. After one more nail-biter of a series, T1 are the 2025 League of Legends World Champions!

Featured Image Source: LoL Esports (via Facebook LolEsports)