Worlds

2026/10/06

Worlds 2026 Schedule, 19 Teams and Format Explained (Japan Time Included)

7 min read

LoL Worlds 2026 opens with the Play-In on October 15 (PDT), October 16, 3 AM in Japan, and the final is November 14 in Brooklyn. Full schedule with local and Japan times, all 19 qualified teams, Play-In, Swiss and Knockout formats, Round 1 draw pools and the official Power Rankings, plus an AI read on the matchups.

Worlds 2026, the League of Legends World Championship, begins with the Play-In on October 15 at 11 AM PDT (October 16, 3 AM in Japan/Korea). This year it tours three US cities — Los Angeles, Allen (Texas) and Brooklyn (New York) — and the final is on November 14 at 2 PM EST (LoL Esports).

Nineteen teams from six regions compete for a $5 million prize pool on patch 26.20 (event ruleset). This article lays out the full schedule, the qualified teams, the format and draw rules from official announcements, and an AI analysis of the official Power Rankings.

Written on October 6, 2026, from official announcements (LoL Esports' Worlds 2026 Primer, venue policies, the event ruleset and Global Power Rankings). Japan times are converted from the official local times and checked against the KST times listed in the primer (Japan and Korea share a time zone). Matchups are drawn later; we will add them here as they are set.

Schedule

For viewers in Japan and Korea, the Play-In starts at 3 AM, Swiss days at 2 AM or 5 AM, and knockout matches at 7 AM.

Stage (city)	Local start time	Japan time (JST)
Play-In (Los Angeles)	Oct 15–18, 11 AM PDT	Oct 16 (Fri) – Oct 19 (Mon), 3:00 each day
Swiss Stage, first half (Allen)	Oct 23–26, 12 PM CDT	Oct 24 (Sat) – Oct 27 (Tue), 2:00 each day
Swiss Stage, second half (Allen)	Oct 28–30, 3 PM CDT	Oct 29 (Thu) – Oct 31 (Sat), 5:00 each day
Swiss Stage, final day (Allen)	Oct 31, 12 PM CDT	Nov 1 (Sun), 2:00
Quarterfinals (Allen)	Nov 3–6, 4 PM CST	Nov 4 (Wed) – Nov 7 (Sat), 7:00 each day
Semifinals (Allen)	Nov 7–8, 4 PM CST	Nov 8 (Sun) & Nov 9 (Mon), 7:00
Final (Brooklyn)	Nov 14, 2 PM EST	Nov 15 (Sun), 4:00

Sources: Worlds 2026 Primer, venue event policies. US daylight saving time ends on November 1, so knockout times are in Central Standard Time.

The Swiss Stage, quarterfinals and semifinals are at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, and the final is at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (LoL Esports). A Worlds Fan Fest runs at Pier 36 in Lower Manhattan from November 12 to 14.

The 19 teams and where they start

Top regional seeds start in the Swiss Stage; four lower seeds start in the Play-In. The LCK and LPL send four teams, the LEC, LCS and LCP three, and the CBLOL two (official, Liquipedia).

Region	Team	Seed	Entry	GPR rank / score
LCK	Gen.G (GEN)	#1	Swiss, Pool 1	#2 / 1519
LCK	Hanwha Life Esports (HLE)	#2	Swiss, Pool 2	#1 / 1540
LCK	T1 (T1)	#3	Swiss, Pool 3	#5 / 1471
LCK	Dplus KIA (DK)	#4	Swiss, Pool 4	#7 / 1409
LPL	Anyone's Legend (AL)	#1	Swiss, Pool 1	#7 / 1409
LPL	Bilibili Gaming (BLG)	#2	Swiss, Pool 2	#3 / 1513
LPL	Top Esports (TES)	#3	Swiss, Pool 3	#13 / 1364
LPL	Invictus Gaming (IG)	#4	Swiss, Pool 4	#15 / 1348
LEC	G2 Esports (G2)	#1	Swiss, Pool 1	#4 / 1475
LEC	Movistar KOI (MKOI)	#2	Swiss, Pool 3	#18 / 1317
LEC	Karmine Corp (KC)	#3	Play-In	#10 / 1375
LCS	Team Liquid Alienware (TLAW)	#1	Swiss, Pool 1	#12 / 1368
LCS	LYON (LYON)	#2	Swiss, Pool 3	#6 / 1438
LCS	Cloud9 Kia (C9)	#3	Play-In	#16 / 1335
LCP	Team Secret Whales (TSW)	#1	Swiss, Pool 2	#11 / 1372
LCP	CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO)	#2	Swiss, Pool 4	#18 / 1317
LCP	MVK Esports (MVK)	#3	Play-In	#28 / 1247
CBLOL	LOS (LOS)	#1 or #2	Pool 2 or Play-In	#40 / 1174
CBLOL	FURIA (FUR)	#1 or #2	Pool 2 or Play-In	#35 / 1208

Sources: Worlds 2026 Primer (teams, pools), Global Power Rankings (updated October 5, 2026). Tied teams share a GPR rank.

LOS and FURIA have both qualified from the CBLOL; the CBLOL Finals on October 10 decide which is the first seed (Swiss Pool 2) and which goes to the Play-In. No Japanese team qualified this year: the LCP (Asia-Pacific) is represented by Team Secret Whales, CTBC Flying Oyster and MVK Esports.

Format: Play-In, Swiss, Knockout

Play-In (October 15–18)

KC, C9, MVK and the CBLOL second seed play a best-of-five double-elimination bracket; one team advances to the Swiss Stage (ruleset). The opening matchups come from a fully random draw after the CBLOL Finals (official).

Swiss Stage (October 23–31)

Sixteen teams play up to five rounds: three wins advance, three losses are out. Rounds 1 and 2 are best-of-one, and any match that decides advancement or elimination is best-of-three. From Round 2, teams with the same record are drawn against each other, with no rematches (ruleset).

Round 1 uses four pools: Pool 1 faces Pool 4, Pool 2 faces Pool 3, and no same-region matchups (official).

Pool	Teams	Round 1 opponent
1	GEN, AL, TLAW, G2	Pool 4
2	CBLOL #1, TSW, HLE, BLG	Pool 3
3	LYON, MKOI, T1, TES	Pool 2
4	CFO, IG, DK, Play-In winner	Pool 1

Knockout Stage (November 3–14)

The eight Swiss qualifiers play a best-of-five single-elimination bracket. The quarterfinal draw pairs the two 3-0 teams with 3-2 teams on opposite sides of the bracket (official).

The official Power Rankings

Riot's Global Power Rankings (GPR) combine context of play, recent results, in-game execution and strength of opponent. As of October 5, the top five are HLE, GEN, BLG, G2 and T1 — three of them from the LCK (LoL Esports).

Regional strength scores are LCK 1389, LPL 1362, LEC 1265, LCS 1242, LCP 1107 and CBLOL 835. Pools follow regional seeds, not GPR, so they do not always line up: Pool 4's DK (#7) has the same score as Pool 1's AL (#7).

AI analysis example

What Claude Opus 5.5 says about this match data

Model: Claude Opus 5.5 · Generated: 2026-10-06

No games have been played yet, so there are no match stats. Instead we handed the model, in JSON, the official Global Power Rankings (updated October 5, 2026) — rank, score and W-L for all 19 teams — plus the Play-In format and Swiss Round 1 pools from the official primer.

Show the exact data and prompt

Data

{
  "event": "League of Legends World Championship 2026 (Worlds 2026)",
  "sources": [
    "LoL Esports Global Power Rankings, updated 2026-10-05 (rank / score / W-L as shown on the page)",
    "LoL Esports 'Worlds 2026 Primer' (stages, pools, draw rules)"
  ],
  "regionalStrengthScore": {
    "LCK": 1389,
    "LPL": 1362,
    "LEC": 1265,
    "LCS": 1242,
    "LCP": 1107,
    "CBLOL": 835
  },
  "playIn": {
    "format": "4 teams, Bo5 double elimination, winner goes to Swiss Pool 4",
    "teams": [
      {
        "team": "KC",
        "region": "LEC",
        "gprRank": 10,
        "score": 1375,
        "wl": "33-13"
      },
      {
        "team": "C9",
        "region": "LCS",
        "gprRank": 16,
        "score": 1335,
        "wl": "20-7"
      },
      {
        "team": "MVK",
        "region": "LCP",
        "gprRank": 28,
        "score": 1247,
        "wl": "12-13"
      },
      {
        "team": "CBLOL #2 (LOS or FURIA, decided Oct 10)",
        "region": "CBLOL",
        "candidates": [
          {
            "team": "LOS",
            "gprRank": 40,
            "score": 1174,
            "wl": "22-9"
          },
          {
            "team": "FURIA",
            "gprRank": 35,
            "score": 1208,
            "wl": "24-11"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "swissRound1": {
    "rules": "Bo1. Pool 1 vs Pool 4, Pool 2 vs Pool 3. No same-region matchups in Round 1. 3 wins advance, 3 losses eliminated.",
    "pool1": [
      {
        "team": "GEN",
        "region": "LCK",
        "gprRank": 2,
        "score": 1519,
        "wl": "33-9"
      },
      {
        "team": "AL",
        "region": "LPL",
        "gprRank": 7,
        "score": 1409,
        "wl": "32-18"
      },
      {
        "team": "TLAW",
        "region": "LCS",
        "gprRank": 12,
        "score": 1368,
        "wl": "21-11"
      },
      {
        "team": "G2",
        "region": "LEC",
        "gprRank": 4,
        "score": 1475,
        "wl": "33-15"
      }
    ],
    "pool2": [
      {
        "team": "CBLOL #1 (LOS or FURIA)",
        "region": "CBLOL"
      },
      {
        "team": "TSW",
        "region": "LCP",
        "gprRank": 11,
        "score": 1372,
        "wl": "26-6"
      },
      {
        "team": "HLE",
        "region": "LCK",
        "gprRank": 1,
        "score": 1540,
        "wl": "28-13"
      },
      {
        "team": "BLG",
        "region": "LPL",
        "gprRank": 3,
        "score": 1513,
        "wl": "48-11"
      }
    ],
    "pool3": [
      {
        "team": "LYON",
        "region": "LCS",
        "gprRank": 6,
        "score": 1438,
        "wl": "25-10"
      },
      {
        "team": "MKOI",
        "region": "LEC",
        "gprRank": 18,
        "score": 1317,
        "wl": "22-18"
      },
      {
        "team": "T1",
        "region": "LCK",
        "gprRank": 5,
        "score": 1471,
        "wl": "29-16"
      },
      {
        "team": "TES",
        "region": "LPL",
        "gprRank": 13,
        "score": 1364,
        "wl": "27-24"
      }
    ],
    "pool4": [
      {
        "team": "CFO",
        "region": "LCP",
        "gprRank": 18,
        "score": 1317,
        "wl": "12-14"
      },
      {
        "team": "IG",
        "region": "LPL",
        "gprRank": 15,
        "score": 1348,
        "wl": "18-25"
      },
      {
        "team": "DK",
        "region": "LCK",
        "gprRank": 7,
        "score": 1409,
        "wl": "27-16"
      },
      {
        "team": "Play-In winner",
        "region": "TBD"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Prompt

You are a League of Legends analyst. Below are the official Global Power Rankings (updated October 5, 2026) — rank, score and W-L — for the 19 Worlds 2026 teams, plus the Play-In format and the Swiss Stage Round 1 draw pools.
Answer briefly:
(1) Which team is most likely to win the Play-In, and why?
(2) In Swiss Round 1 (Pool 1 vs Pool 4, Pool 2 vs Pool 3, no same-region matchups, Bo1), which pairings are most upset-prone?
(3) What can this data not tell us?
Mark anything not in the data as speculation.

AI response

1. Play-In favorite

Karmine Corp has the highest GPR of the four Play-In teams (#10, 1375, 33-13), followed by Cloud9 Kia (#16, 1335). MVK Esports (#28, 1247) and the CBLOL second seed (LOS 1174 / FURIA 1208) trail KC by more than 120 points, and the regional strength scores show the same gap (LEC 1265, LCS 1242 vs LCP 1107, CBLOL 835). A Bo5 double-elimination bracket favors the stronger team because one loss does not end a run. On this data KC is the favorite and C9 the main challenger. The KC–C9 gap is only 40 points, though, so a meeting between them could go either way (head-to-head results are not in the data, so this is speculation).

2. Upset-prone Swiss Round 1 pairings

Pools follow regional seeds and do not match GPR. Pool 4's Dplus KIA (1409) is level with Pool 1's Anyone's Legend (1409) and above Team Liquid Alienware (1368). Pool 3's T1 (1471) and LYON (1438) are above Pool 2's Team Secret Whales (1372) and the CBLOL first seed (1208 or lower). So the pairings where the higher-pool team is equal or weaker on score are AL vs DK, TLAW vs DK, TLAW vs the Play-In winner (1375 if KC), TSW vs T1, TSW vs LYON, and CBLOL #1 vs T1, LYON or TES. Round 1 is Bo1, so the smaller the score gap, the harder the result is to call. Conversely, GEN (1519) and HLE (1540) cannot draw DK or T1 because of the same-region rule, and every possible Round 1 opponent for them is at least 100 points lower.

3. What this data cannot tell us

W-L records include domestic league games, so they do not compare across regions. TSW's 26-6 and GEN's 33-9 are not on the same scale.
The data says nothing about each team's fit with patch 26.20, roster changes or current form.
The weights inside GPR are not public, so we cannot translate a score gap into a win probability.
CBLOL seeding is not set until the October 10 final, so whether LOS or FURIA lands in Pool 2 is still open.

The AI response is based only on the input data; for facts, the reporting in the article takes precedence.

You can do the same with your own games. Search your Riot ID and export any match in a format you can paste straight into an AI.

What to watch (our view)

From here on this is opinion, not fact. The first thing that stands out is that all four LCK teams sit inside GPR's top seven, so Pool 3's T1 and Pool 4's DK could knock off another region's top seed as early as Round 1, depending on the draw.

The second is that Swiss Rounds 1 and 2 are best-of-one. Skill gaps show less than in a Bo5, so early stumbles by favorites are more likely. Round 1 matchups are drawn after the Play-In ends on October 18; we will add them here.

Before you watch

Pick'Ems open on October 10 at 4 PM PDT, and Play-In picks lock before the first Play-In match (official). The 2026 theme is "THIS IS OUR MOMENT," and the featured skin is True Damage Know My Name Yasuo.

LoL2LLM also uses AI to analyze the solo-queue games of players heading to Worlds. See Faker's solo-queue stats analyzed and Kiin's top-lane stats analyzed for each player's everyday habits.

Sources

This article summarizes official announcements. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with Riot Games.

Try it on your own games

Search your Riot ID and export your match data as AI-ready JSON.

FAQ

When does Worlds 2026 start?

The Play-In starts on October 15, 2026 at 11 AM PDT (October 16, 3 AM in Japan and Korea). The Swiss Stage runs October 23–31, the Knockout Stage starts November 3, and the final is November 14 at 2 PM EST.

Where is Worlds 2026 held?

In the United States. The Play-In is in Los Angeles, the Swiss Stage through the semifinals is at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, and the final is at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Which LCK teams are at Worlds 2026?

Gen.G (LCK first seed), Hanwha Life Esports (second), T1 (third) and Dplus KIA (fourth). All four start in the Swiss Stage.

How does the Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage work?

Sixteen teams play up to five rounds; three wins advance and three losses eliminate. Rounds 1 and 2 are best-of-one, and advancement or elimination matches are best-of-three. Round 1 pairs Pool 1 with Pool 4 and Pool 2 with Pool 3, with no same-region matchups.

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