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Having finished in 4th place for the last LCK split before Worlds 2025, T1 had to play a set against Invictus Gaming, the LPL’s 4th seed, to make it to Worlds proper – and one player was truly the difference maker in the series.
Unlike other LoL international events in the past, the Play-In stage consists of only one best-of-5 set to determine which fourth seed between the LPL and LCK, the two strongest regions, will advance to the Worlds 2025 main event.
Oner was the MVP for T1 in their Worlds 2025 Play-In match. Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot
And, just like clockwork, T1 have turned things up for Worlds to put on a dominant showing against Invictus Gaming. Despite coming in as the worst LCK team by seed, they’ve still got a solid shot at defending their title.
T1 Rebound Ahead of Worlds 2025 Main Stage
In many ways, 2025 has been a slump year for T1. Gen.G have well and truly stolen the spotlight, with them stealing the lion’s share of glory on the international stage this year. Between their back-to-back MSI and Esports World Cup wins and complete domestic dominance, it’s hard not to buy into the Gen.G hype train.
However, in their opening set against Invictus Gaming, T1 came to life. The gap between the two teams only widened as the set went on, with the defending world champions showing why they’ve got such a strong record at international events.
However, T1’s dynamic is very different this year. There’s one player who has stood out above all others on the team, one who typically was viewed as a weak link in past years: Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun.
ONER SURVIVES pic.twitter.com/vRedpTIXOx
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 14, 2025
While Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is known as the Unkillable Demon King, in the past few series T1 have played, Oner has been stealing that title as the deciding factor on whether or not they win matches.
In games 3 and 4, iG’s Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei was outmatched entirely in the jungle, with him having no way to show presence on the map and force T1 to fear him. If Wei managed to get one pick on Faker, Oner would be somewhere else, taking out three members and getting an objective.
With this win, T1 have claimed the last spot in the Swiss Stage at Worlds 2025, and they’ll be immediately fighting FlyQuest on day 1. And, despite FlyQuest being the first seed from their region and T1 being fourth, T1 is certainly favored in the matchup.
Though there’s a long championship ahead, it’s important to remember T1 won last year after coming in as the fourth LCK seed. Just because they were last to qualify doesn’t mean they can’t win it all over again.
This would be even more significant given recent news that Riot Games is absorbing the LCK after immense financial losses moving forward.
