Eight teams are left at Worlds 2026, and two of them are flying the flag for the West. LYON are the last LCS side standing, Karmine Corp are the last LEC side standing, and both have been handed the sort of quarterfinal draw that you’d rather avoid at this stage: Gen.G for LYON, T1 for KC.
The rest of the West didn’t make it. Day 7 of the Swiss stage was brutal, with LØS knocking out Team Liquid and Hanwha Life ending G2’s run on the same day. That left LYON and KC to scrap through on the final day, and both did, finishing 3-2.
So can either of them actually pull it off? Here’s how we see both series going.
Gen.G vs LYON prediction
Wednesday 4 November, 23:00 CET
LYON’s Swiss run was a proper rollercoaster. They opened 2-0 with wins over Team Secret Whales and Karmine Corp, then dropped two on the bounce to Gen.G and Invictus Gaming. That left them in a do-or-die series against LØS on the final day.
And it nearly went wrong. LØS took Game 1 comfortably, and LYON won Game 2 without holding a gold lead at any point, not even when the Nexus went down. Then in Game 3 they threw away a lead of almost 3K gold and still clawed it back late.
The problem is who’s waiting. Gen.G went through the Swiss stage undefeated, and one of their three wins was a 2-1 over LYON in Round 3. So this is a rematch, and LYON already know what losing it feels like.
The good news for NA is that 2-1 isn’t a stomp. LYON took a game off Gen.G in a Bo3, and a Bo5 gives them more room to find a draft that works. The bad news is that LYON’s best moments at this tournament have come from coming back, and Gen.G don’t usually give you much to come back from.
Our call: Gen.G 3-1. LYON nick a game, probably off a scrappy late-game fight, but Gen.G are too clean to let a series slip twice.
T1 vs KC prediction
Friday 6 November, 23:00 CET
KC took the long way round, and they’ve made it to the final stage. They dropped back-to-back series to LYON and Bilibili Gaming in the middle of the Swiss stage, which had the Blue Wall sweating. Then they flipped it, beating CTBC Flying Oyster and Movistar KOI 2-0 each to book their place.
The MKOI series was the one that showed what this team can do under pressure. Though the two sides have become somewhat of an LEC rivalry of late, and KC have been the better of the two overall.
T1 are T1. They went 3-1 through the Swiss stage, and their only loss came against Dplus KIA, who also went unbeaten. They’re the team nobody wants in a Bo5, and they’ve got a long history of making Western teams look silly on the big stage.
Still, this KC team has more upset potential than LYON. Caliste and Yike just won a must-win series between them, and a team that’s spent a week playing elimination games won’t be fazed by the stakes.
Our call: T1 3-2. KC take this further than most people expect, but T1 in a deciding game is still the scariest thing in League.
Worlds 2026 quarterfinals schedule
All four quarterfinals are best-of-five at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, starting at 23:00 CET (17:00 ET).
| Date | Match |
|---|---|
| Tuesday 3 November | Top Esports vs Invictus Gaming |
| Wednesday 4 November | Gen.G vs LYON |
| Thursday 5 November | Dplus KIA vs Bilibili Gaming |
| Friday 6 November | T1 vs Karmine Corp |
The semifinals follow on 7 and 8 November in Allen, then the final moves to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on 14 November.