Worlds

2026/10/19

Worlds 2026 Play-In Results: C9 and FURIA Out, KC vs MVK for the Last Swiss Spot

7 min read

Every Worlds 2026 Play-In result (Oct 15–18 PDT). Cloud9 and FURIA are eliminated, and Karmine Corp meet MVK Esports in the final on Oct 18 at 11 AM PDT for the last Swiss Stage spot. All 19 games with winners, game length, kills and dragons, player stats, the champions picked and the Swiss Round 1 draw rules, from official data. With an AI analysis.

At the Worlds 2026 Play-In in Los Angeles, Cloud9 Kia (C9) and FURIA (FUR) have been eliminated. Karmine Corp (KC) and MVK Esports (MVK) meet in the final (Bo5) on October 18 at 11 AM PDT (October 19, 3:00 JST) for the last spot in the Swiss Stage (LoL Esports, Leaguepedia).

The Play-In is a Bo5 double-elimination bracket, and five series and 19 games have been played so far. This article lays out every game's winner, length, kills, dragons and barons from official match data, the finalists' player stats, the most-picked champions and the Swiss Round 1 draw rules. At the end, we show what an AI makes of the data ahead of the final.

Written at 00:00 JST on October 19 (8 AM PDT, October 18), before the Play-In final. Results and stats come from LoL Esports' official match data (the official schedule and live stats); every game winner and every player's K/D/A were checked against Leaguepedia's scoreboards and all of them matched. Game length is Leaguepedia's record. We will add the final result and the Swiss Round 1 pairings once they are set.

Results at a glance: KC and MVK reach the final

Local time (PDT)	Round	Result (Bo5)	Japan time
Oct 15, 11 AM PDT	Upper bracket round 1	KC 3-2 C9	Oct 16 (Fri), 3:00
Oct 15, 4 PM PDT	Upper bracket round 1	MVK 3-0 FUR	Oct 16 (Fri), 8:00
Oct 16, 11 AM PDT	Upper bracket final	KC 3-0 MVK	Oct 17 (Sat), 3:00
Oct 16, 4 PM PDT	Lower bracket round 1	FUR 3-1 C9	Oct 17 (Sat), 8:00
Oct 17, 11 AM PDT	Lower bracket final	MVK 3-1 FUR	Oct 18 (Sun), 3:00
Oct 18, 11 AM PDT	Final (Swiss qualifier)	KC vs MVK (upcoming)	Oct 19 (Mon), 3:00

Sources: LoL Esports official schedule, Leaguepedia (checked 00:00 JST, October 19).

KC beat C9 3-2 in the upper bracket and MVK 3-0 in the upper final, reaching the final without a series loss. MVK swept FURIA in the upper bracket, lost 0-3 to KC in the upper final, then beat FURIA 3-1 in the lower final to get back. The final is a rematch of the upper final.

C9 lost a five-game series to KC 2-3 in the upper bracket and were knocked out 1-3 by FURIA in the lower bracket. FURIA beat C9 but fell 1-3 to MVK in the lower final.

All 19 games, with stats

Kills, dragons and barons are listed as winner-loser, and gold diff is the winner's total-gold lead when the game ended. "E" means the dragons include the Elder Dragon. Side is the winning team's side.

KC 3-2 C9 (upper bracket round 1, Oct 15)

C9 took Game 1 with a 20-1 kill score and Game 3 22-5, pushing KC to the brink twice. KC won Game 2 despite fewer kills (14-16) with a +2,591 gold lead, then closed it out with five dragons including Elder in Game 4 and two barons in Game 5.

Game	Winner (side)	Length	Kills	Gold diff	Dragons	Barons
G1	C9 (red)	35:02	20-1	+18,549	4-1	2-0
G2	KC (red)	35:10	14-16	+2,591	3-3	0-1
G3	C9 (red)	37:49	22-5	+13,996	5E-0	2-0
G4	KC (red)	38:09	15-6	+13,856	5E-1	1-0
G5	KC (blue)	31:21	17-8	+9,855	2-3	2-0

MVK 3-0 FURIA (upper bracket round 1, Oct 15)

MVK swept. They won a tight Game 1 (11-10 in kills) even after giving up four dragons, took Game 2 28-13 in kills and ended Game 3 in 27:02.

Game	Winner (side)	Length	Kills	Gold diff	Dragons	Barons
G1	MVK (blue)	35:24	11-10	+4,798	1-4	1-1
G2	MVK (blue)	34:56	28-13	+11,579	3-2	2-0
G3	MVK (blue)	27:02	22-8	+13,124	3-1	1-0

KC 3-0 MVK (upper bracket final, Oct 16)

KC won 3-0 and booked the first spot in the final. Across the three games, KC took dragons 11-4 and kills 44-22. MVK swapped Gury for SanSan at jungle from Game 2, and the gold gap shrank from 12,848 in Game 1 to 4,760 in Game 3.

Game	Winner (side)	Length	Kills	Gold diff	Dragons	Barons
G1	KC (blue)	30:14	9-4	+12,848	4-1	1-0
G2	KC (blue)	33:03	21-11	+7,040	3-2	1-1
G3	KC (red)	36:13	14-7	+4,760	4-1	1-1

FURIA 3-1 C9 (lower bracket round 1, Oct 16)

C9 won Game 1 with five dragons including Elder, but FURIA took the next three to eliminate C9, securing every baron in Games 2 through 4.

Game	Winner (side)	Length	Kills	Gold diff	Dragons	Barons
G1	C9 (red)	39:52	19-10	+11,819	5E-1	1-0
G2	FUR (red)	35:16	12-9	+4,814	3-2	2-0
G3	FUR (blue)	34:09	14-6	+11,080	2-3	2-0
G4	FUR (blue)	28:36	16-7	+12,653	2-2	1-0

MVK 3-1 FURIA (lower bracket final, Oct 17)

MVK won the first two games. FURIA struck back with a 21-8 Game 3, but MVK answered with a 21-8 Game 4 to reach the final.

Game	Winner (side)	Length	Kills	Gold diff	Dragons	Barons
G1	MVK (blue)	31:08	21-8	+9,950	4-0	0-1
G2	MVK (blue)	27:24	18-7	+13,414	2-2	1-0
G3	FUR (red)	36:15	21-8	+10,423	2-3	1-0
G4	MVK (blue)	28:09	21-8	+11,860	2-1	1-0

Source: LoL Esports official match data (live stats, end of game). Game length from Leaguepedia scoreboards (upper and lower finals).

The finalists' player stats

Play-In totals for KC and MVK. KDA is (kills + assists) ÷ deaths, CS/min is total CS divided by total game time, and damage share is the player's average share of the team's damage to champions.

Team	Role	Player	Games	K/D/A	KDA	CS/min	Damage share
KC	Top	Canna	8	18/20/36	2.7	8.7	24.7%
KC	Jungle	Yike	8	19/16/47	4.1	7.5	14.9%
KC	Mid	kyeahoo	8	23/23/29	2.3	9.1	27.6%
KC	Bot	Caliste	8	30/16/40	4.4	10.6	24.9%
KC	Support	Busio	8	6/19/65	3.7	1.0	8.0%
MVK	Top	Kratos	10	29/20/49	3.9	8.5	18.7%
MVK	Jungle	Gury	8	28/16/60	5.5	7.6	20.1%
MVK	Jungle	SanSan	2	3/8/8	1.4	6.7	12.9%
MVK	Mid	Chika	10	40/28/53	3.3	8.5	26.4%
MVK	Bot	Harky	10	40/22/59	4.5	10.5	28.6%
MVK	Support	SiuLoong	10	10/25/93	4.1	1.0	7.6%

In the bot lane, KC's Caliste (4.4 KDA, 10.6 CS/min) and MVK's Harky (4.5 KDA, 10.5 CS/min) are almost level. MVK jungler Gury has the best KDA of the finalists at 5.5. The highest damage shares belong to KC mid laner kyeahoo (27.6%) and MVK's Harky (28.6%).

Among the eliminated teams, FURIA bot laner Ayu took 47 kills in 11 games, the most of the Play-In, and C9's Tactical posted 10.5 CS/min.

Champions: 79 picked, seven in every series

Every Play-In match used Fearless Draft (Liquipedia): once a champion is played in a series, neither team can pick it for the rest of that series. The official data agrees: across 19 games, no champion was repeated within a series. The restriction resets between series, and KC brought Vi and Syndra back against MVK after using them against C9.

The 19 games produced 190 picks of 79 different champions. Seven were picked in all five series:

Rumble

Syndra

Lucian

Jarvan IV

Lulu

K'Sante

The five-game KC vs C9 series used 50 different champions. The final is also a Bo5, so the longer it goes, the fewer champions each team has left.

Swiss Round 1: drawn after the Play-In, starts October 23

The Play-In winner joins Pool 4 of the Swiss Stage. Round 1 is set by a random draw after the Play-In ends on October 18: Pool 1 vs Pool 4 and Pool 2 vs Pool 3, with no same-region matchups in Round 1 (LoL Esports Worlds 2026 Primer).

Pool	Teams (region)	Round 1 opponent
1	GEN (LCK), AL (LPL), TLAW (LCS), G2 (LEC)	Pool 4
2	LOS (CBLOL), TSW (LCP), HLE (LCK), BLG (LPL)	Pool 3
3	LYON (LCS), MKOI (LEC), T1 (LCK), TES (LPL)	Pool 2
4	CFO (LCP), IG (LPL), DK (LCK), Play-In winner (KC or MVK)	Pool 1

Round 1 is eight Bo1 matches on October 23, one per hour from 12 PM CDT (October 24, 2:00 to 9:00 JST) (official schedule). It is a Swiss format: three wins advance, three losses eliminate, and from Round 2 teams with the same record meet.

The no-same-region rule narrows the options. If KC win the Play-In, they cannot meet fellow LEC team G2, so their opponent will be GEN, AL or TLAW. If MVK win, all four Pool 1 teams are possible, since Pool 1 has no LCP team. Elsewhere in Pool 4, DK cannot draw GEN and IG cannot draw AL. In Pool 2 vs Pool 3, HLE cannot meet T1 and BLG cannot meet TES.

AI analysis example

What Claude Opus 5.5 says about this match data

Model: Claude Opus 5.5 · Generated: 2026-10-19

We handed the AI the results of the five series and 19 games (the same official data as the tables above) and the finalists' player stats as JSON, before the final.

Show the exact data and prompt

Data

{
  "event": "Worlds 2026 Play-In (Bo5, double elimination, Fearless Draft per series)",
  "asOf": "2026-10-19 00:00 JST, before the final",
  "sources": [
    "LoL Esports official schedule API and live-stats feed (end-of-game totals)",
    "Leaguepedia scoreboards (game length; winners and K/D/A cross-checked)"
  ],
  "notation": "kills/dragons/barons are winner-loser; E = includes Elder Dragon; gold = winner's end-of-game gold lead",
  "series": [
    {
      "round": "Upper bracket round 1",
      "result": "KC 3-2 C9",
      "games": [
        {
          "game": 1,
          "winner": "C9",
          "length": "35:02",
          "kills": "20-1",
          "goldLead": "+18,549",
          "dragons": "4-1",
          "barons": "2-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 2,
          "winner": "KC",
          "length": "35:10",
          "kills": "14-16",
          "goldLead": "+2,591",
          "dragons": "3-3",
          "barons": "0-1"
        },
        {
          "game": 3,
          "winner": "C9",
          "length": "37:49",
          "kills": "22-5",
          "goldLead": "+13,996",
          "dragons": "5E-0",
          "barons": "2-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 4,
          "winner": "KC",
          "length": "38:09",
          "kills": "15-6",
          "goldLead": "+13,856",
          "dragons": "5E-1",
          "barons": "1-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 5,
          "winner": "KC",
          "length": "31:21",
          "kills": "17-8",
          "goldLead": "+9,855",
          "dragons": "2-3",
          "barons": "2-0"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "round": "Upper bracket round 1",
      "result": "MVK 3-0 FUR",
      "games": [
        {
          "game": 1,
          "winner": "MVK",
          "length": "35:24",
          "kills": "11-10",
          "goldLead": "+4,798",
          "dragons": "1-4",
          "barons": "1-1"
        },
        {
          "game": 2,
          "winner": "MVK",
          "length": "34:56",
          "kills": "28-13",
          "goldLead": "+11,579",
          "dragons": "3-2",
          "barons": "2-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 3,
          "winner": "MVK",
          "length": "27:02",
          "kills": "22-8",
          "goldLead": "+13,124",
          "dragons": "3-1",
          "barons": "1-0"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "round": "Upper bracket final",
      "result": "KC 3-0 MVK",
      "games": [
        {
          "game": 1,
          "winner": "KC",
          "length": "30:14",
          "kills": "9-4",
          "goldLead": "+12,848",
          "dragons": "4-1",
          "barons": "1-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 2,
          "winner": "KC",
          "length": "33:03",
          "kills": "21-11",
          "goldLead": "+7,040",
          "dragons": "3-2",
          "barons": "1-1"
        },
        {
          "game": 3,
          "winner": "KC",
          "length": "36:13",
          "kills": "14-7",
          "goldLead": "+4,760",
          "dragons": "4-1",
          "barons": "1-1"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "round": "Lower bracket round 1",
      "result": "FUR 3-1 C9",
      "games": [
        {
          "game": 1,
          "winner": "C9",
          "length": "39:52",
          "kills": "19-10",
          "goldLead": "+11,819",
          "dragons": "5E-1",
          "barons": "1-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 2,
          "winner": "FUR",
          "length": "35:16",
          "kills": "12-9",
          "goldLead": "+4,814",
          "dragons": "3-2",
          "barons": "2-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 3,
          "winner": "FUR",
          "length": "34:09",
          "kills": "14-6",
          "goldLead": "+11,080",
          "dragons": "2-3",
          "barons": "2-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 4,
          "winner": "FUR",
          "length": "28:36",
          "kills": "16-7",
          "goldLead": "+12,653",
          "dragons": "2-2",
          "barons": "1-0"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "round": "Lower bracket final",
      "result": "MVK 3-1 FUR",
      "games": [
        {
          "game": 1,
          "winner": "MVK",
          "length": "31:08",
          "kills": "21-8",
          "goldLead": "+9,950",
          "dragons": "4-0",
          "barons": "0-1"
        },
        {
          "game": 2,
          "winner": "MVK",
          "length": "27:24",
          "kills": "18-7",
          "goldLead": "+13,414",
          "dragons": "2-2",
          "barons": "1-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 3,
          "winner": "FUR",
          "length": "36:15",
          "kills": "21-8",
          "goldLead": "+10,423",
          "dragons": "2-3",
          "barons": "1-0"
        },
        {
          "game": 4,
          "winner": "MVK",
          "length": "28:09",
          "kills": "21-8",
          "goldLead": "+11,860",
          "dragons": "2-1",
          "barons": "1-0"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "mapRecords": {
    "KC": "6-2",
    "MVK": "6-4",
    "FUR": "4-7",
    "C9": "3-6"
  },
  "rosterNote": "MVK played SanSan instead of Gury at jungle in games 2-3 of the upper final vs KC",
  "finalistPlayers": [
    {
      "team": "KC",
      "player": "Canna",
      "role": "top",
      "games": 8,
      "kda": "18/20/36",
      "kdaRatio": "2.7",
      "csPerMin": "8.7",
      "damageShare": "24.7%"
    },
    {
      "team": "KC",
      "player": "Yike",
      "role": "jungle",
      "games": 8,
      "kda": "19/16/47",
      "kdaRatio": "4.1",
      "csPerMin": "7.5",
      "damageShare": "14.9%"
    },
    {
      "team": "KC",
      "player": "kyeahoo",
      "role": "mid",
      "games": 8,
      "kda": "23/23/29",
      "kdaRatio": "2.3",
      "csPerMin": "9.1",
      "damageShare": "27.6%"
    },
    {
      "team": "KC",
      "player": "Caliste",
      "role": "bottom",
      "games": 8,
      "kda": "30/16/40",
      "kdaRatio": "4.4",
      "csPerMin": "10.6",
      "damageShare": "24.9%"
    },
    {
      "team": "KC",
      "player": "Busio",
      "role": "support",
      "games": 8,
      "kda": "6/19/65",
      "kdaRatio": "3.7",
      "csPerMin": "1.0",
      "damageShare": "8.0%"
    },
    {
      "team": "MVK",
      "player": "Kratos",
      "role": "top",
      "games": 10,
      "kda": "29/20/49",
      "kdaRatio": "3.9",
      "csPerMin": "8.5",
      "damageShare": "18.7%"
    },
    {
      "team": "MVK",
      "player": "Gury",
      "role": "jungle",
      "games": 8,
      "kda": "28/16/60",
      "kdaRatio": "5.5",
      "csPerMin": "7.6",
      "damageShare": "20.1%"
    },
    {
      "team": "MVK",
      "player": "SanSan",
      "role": "jungle",
      "games": 2,
      "kda": "3/8/8",
      "kdaRatio": "1.4",
      "csPerMin": "6.7",
      "damageShare": "12.9%"
    },
    {
      "team": "MVK",
      "player": "Chika",
      "role": "mid",
      "games": 10,
      "kda": "40/28/53",
      "kdaRatio": "3.3",
      "csPerMin": "8.5",
      "damageShare": "26.4%"
    },
    {
      "team": "MVK",
      "player": "Harky",
      "role": "bottom",
      "games": 10,
      "kda": "40/22/59",
      "kdaRatio": "4.5",
      "csPerMin": "10.5",
      "damageShare": "28.6%"
    },
    {
      "team": "MVK",
      "player": "SiuLoong",
      "role": "support",
      "games": 10,
      "kda": "10/25/93",
      "kdaRatio": "4.1",
      "csPerMin": "1.0",
      "damageShare": "7.6%"
    }
  ],
  "final": "KC vs MVK, Bo5, 2026-10-18 11:00 PDT (2026-10-19 03:00 JST); winner goes to Swiss Pool 4"
}

Prompt

You are a League of Legends analyst. Below are the results of all five series and 19 games of the Worlds 2026 Play-In (official data: end-of-game kills, gold lead, dragons and barons) and the player stats of the two finalists, KC and MVK.
Answer briefly:
(1) What the data says about each of the four teams' form
(2) Your read on the final, KC vs MVK
(3) What this data cannot tell us
Mark anything not in the data as speculation.

AI response

1. Form of the four teams

KC (6-2 in games): they lost Game 1 (1-20 in kills, −18,549 gold) and Game 3 (5-22, −13,996) to C9 by wide margins, but won Game 2 despite fewer kills (14-16, +2,591 gold) and then took Games 4 and 5 by +13,856 and +9,855. In the upper final they swept MVK and took dragons 11-4. Both of KC's losses were lopsided, and their wins tend to come from controlling dragons and barons.

MVK (6-4): they beat FURIA 3-0 and 3-1 and lost 0-3 to KC. In the KC series the gold gap went from −12,848 to −7,040 to −4,760, shrinking game by game.

C9 (3-6): all three of their wins came with four or more dragons (two of them including Elder), and they lost all six games in which they took three or fewer. FURIA (4-7): bot laner Ayu took 47 kills in 11 games, but FURIA went 1-6 against MVK across two series.

2. Read on the final, KC vs MVK

The data favors KC: they won the head-to-head 3-0 with kills 44-22, dragons 11-4 and barons 3-2, and their 6-2 game record beats MVK's 6-4. MVK do have something to point to: the gold gap against KC kept shrinking across the three games, and Harky (4.5 KDA, 10.5 CS/min) matches KC's Caliste (4.4, 10.6) almost exactly. Fearless restrictions reset each series, so the final starts from a fresh draft. Whose champion pool holds up better if it goes the distance cannot be read from this data (speculation).

3. What this data cannot tell us

These are end-of-game totals only, so we cannot tell whether games were won through early leads or late teamfights.
Pick order and bans are not included, so draft intent and the Fearless mind games cannot be evaluated.
Why MVK changed junglers is not in the data, and three games are not enough to say whether the swap had anything to do with the shrinking gold gaps.
The teams faced different opponents (KC: C9 and MVK; MVK: FURIA and KC), so the game records are not a direct measure of strength.

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's next

Play-In final, KC vs MVK (Bo5): October 18, 11 AM PDT (October 19, 3:00 JST)
Swiss Round 1 draw: after the Play-In ends on October 18
Swiss Round 1 (eight Bo1s): October 23 from 12 PM CDT (October 24, 2:00 JST)

The full schedule, all 19 teams and the format through the Knockout Stage are in our Worlds 2026 schedule, teams and format guide. Want an AI to look at your own games? Search your Riot ID on the LoL2LLM home page.

Sources

Try it on your own games

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

FAQ

Which teams were eliminated in the Worlds 2026 Play-In?

Cloud9 Kia (LCS #3 seed) and FURIA (CBLOL #2 seed). C9 lost 2-3 to Karmine Corp in the upper bracket and 1-3 to FURIA in the lower bracket. FURIA lost 1-3 to MVK Esports in the lower final.

When is the Play-In final, and who is playing?

Karmine Corp vs MVK Esports, Bo5, on October 18 at 11 AM PDT (October 19, 3:00 JST). The winner joins Pool 4 of the Swiss Stage. The two teams also met in the upper final, which KC won 3-0.

When is the Swiss Stage Round 1 draw?

Right after the Play-In ends on October 18. Pool 1 faces Pool 4 and Pool 2 faces Pool 3, with no same-region matchups in Round 1. Round 1 is eight Bo1 matches on October 23 from 12 PM CDT (October 24, 2:00 JST).

Does the Play-In use Fearless Draft?

Yes. A champion played in a series cannot be picked by either team for the rest of that series, and the restriction resets between series. In the official data for all 19 games, no champion was repeated within a series.

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