The League of Legends world championship, also known as “Worlds,” had its 15th final on Sunday, Nov. 8. The final was held in Dong’an Lake Sports Park in Chengdu with 18,000 fans in attendance and online viewership reaching a peak of 6.7 million people. The best of five series was between two South Korean teams, KT Rolster, and arguably the greatest esports team of all time, T1. While Korea is usually a favorite for Worlds each year, both teams in the final were the bottom two seeds coming into the tournament. 

While statistically this year, T1 would be considered the underdog, the team’s history says otherwise. It was led by one of the greatest esports players of all time, Lee Sang-hyeok, who is more well known by his username “Faker”. There are five different roles on a League team: top, jungle, middle, bottom and support. Faker plays in the middle lane and is universally considered the greatest at both his position and the game in general. However, while he is the greatest and most decorated player, he was not the best in his position this season. 

KT Rolster’s mid laner has had quite a journey this year. Gwak Bo-seong, known by his username “Bdd”, started his professional career in 2016 being hailed as the next greatest prospect after Faker. However, Bdd failed to meet those expectations. Having never made a Korean championship final or Worlds final until this year and bouncing around from team to team, he only cemented himself on KT’s roster three years ago. While KT also came into Worlds looking like they were going to have an early exit, Bdd and KT’s young top laner, PerfecT, absolutely rose to the occasion and had some amazing games to take their team to the final.

While KT failed to beat T1 in the series, Bdd put up an impressive fight against Faker, winning the matchup in three out of the five games and putting up some eye popping statlines. Even though KT was unable to defeat T1, Bdd’s efforts in his role allowed KT to bring the series to a fifth game. 

While many eyes were focused on the mid lane matchup between Faker and Bdd, the top lane also had a contentious battle. PerfecT has been the star of KT’s roster since his professional career started in 2020. Known for his poetic language, he was the favorite in the top lane match-up coming in against T1’s Doran. 

T1’s previous top laner, Zeus, left over contract disputes after their back to back Worlds victories in 2023 and 2024, with Zeus being crowned Worlds final Most Valuable Player in the 2023 series against Weibo Gaming. Doran had big shoes to fill in the top lane and many thought he just wasn’t up to the task. Zeus was considered one of the best, if not the best top laners in the world for the past three years. Doran was considered a choker and someone who never stepped up when it mattered by the community. Joining the team that’s constantly at the center of the community’s attention added a huge weight to Doran’s shoulders. Despite the extra pressure, Doran rose above the highest expectations and played a critical part in winning game one of the series, ending the game with a statline of nine kills, three deaths and seven assists. 

T1’s bot laner, Gumayusi, was awarded series MVP thanks to his great playmaking during the second and final game of the series. However, only two weeks after being voted as the largest contributor to his championship team, Gumayusi announced that he would be leaving T1. Although he never gave an exact reason, it is assumed that he no longer wanted to live in the shadow of his teammate, Faker, and wanted to continue his career elsewhere to forge his own path. This news came as a crushing blow to T1 fans, as Gumayusi had been with the team since the beginning of his career and was a leading factor in winning three Worlds and two Korean League titles. Gumayusi is currently considered one of the best bot laners in the world, and it is clear that every team who has the ability to draft him will try to do so.