League of Legends Worlds 2025 predictions: Who will take home the Summoner’s Cup?

League of Legends World Championship (Worlds 2025) is the most highly anticipated esports event of the year, and this season is coming in hot with stacked competition from grizzled veterans and shiny new rosters. Starting from October 14, 2025, the global event makes its third return to China, where the tournament will rage on until the grand finals of November 9. 

But before that, 17 (16 after play-ins) of the world’s top teams will undergo a Swiss format to qualify for the Knockout stage. This year’s World Championship adopts the Fearless Draft system for the first time in the tournament. Additionally, this is the first tournament featuring the LCP and the first (and last) appearance of the LTA.

For fans who only tune in during Worlds, this is a quick guide with the teams and key players heading into the tournament, the main storylines, alongside a prediction on who will lift the Summoner’s Cup at the end of it all.

All four of Korea’s teams are expected to make deep runs into Worlds 2025, with expectations that at least one (or most likely two) will fight in the grand finals.

Gen.G Esports is the team to beat, entering Worlds as the reigning LCK champions, the EWC 2025 champions, and the 2025 MSI champions. If that wasn’t enough, Gen.G even set a record for the longest win streak in League esports. This lineup is five aces deep, which almost feels unfair for everyone else. If they don’t march onto that finals stage, it will be a tragic end to a historic season.

Don’t undervalue the other LCK representatives, though. Top laner and previous Worlds MVP Zeus has found great success with Hanwha Life Esports (HLE). Together with ADC powerhouse Viper, they became the LCK runner-up. The team has maintained its position as a top contender since winning the international First Stand tournament earlier this year. The squad has three former winners in its lineup (Zeka and Viper), with Zeus chasing a third title.

Of course, it wouldn’t feel right to hold Worlds without T1. The play-in series between T1 and Invictus Gaming (T1) was worthy of a grand final and immediately broke viewership records for the tournament. While the hype is slowly fading away, remember that they were there in the first place because they barely squeaked by as the fourth seed.

With IG bowing out early, the spotlight swings to the LPL’s top seed. Bilibili Gaming still has that 3–2 sting from last year’s final vs. T1. However, they’ve been grinding domestically while also showing up strong during international events.

Another huge contender from China is Anyone’s Legend (AL), a team that wasn’t even on the radar at the start of the year but quickly rose to prominence with good results. Led by star jungle Tarzan, AL almost took the trophy away from Gen.G in its five-game series in EWC 2025. They came in third during MSI, pushing Gen.G and T1 to the limit during the tournament.

For the first time, we have the League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP), a newly merged Asia-Pacific league combining Southeast Asia (PCS), Vietnam (VCS), Japan (LJL), and Oceania, formed to create stronger competition.

LCP’s champion, CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO), is the strongest team ever from the Pacific region. In its debut year, CFO achieved an unprecedented domestic grand slam, winning all three splits with a combined record of only one loss all year. The young roster is expected to fight all the way to the top eight.

Europe’s G2 Esports also cannot be overlooked. G2 had a rebuilding year with two new players. While Mid laner Caps is eager to recapture his old glory, G2 has struggled to get past the Worlds group stage the past two years. Before ever considering the top teams, they’ll need to beat gatekeepers like Flying Oyster and FlyQuest to get there.

On the Western front, the League Championship of the Americas (LTA), a temporary merged league of North America, Latin America, and Brazil, produced a clear front-runner in FlyQuest. 

FlyQuest enters Worlds as the best hope for the region, returning with the same roster that nearly upset Gen.G in last year’s quarterfinals. They dominated the Americas region again in 2025, and are led by star jungler Kacper “Inspired” Słoma, who was MVP in both Europe and NA in recent years.

Gen.G enters Worlds 2025 as the overwhelming favourites to win, and it won’t be to anyone’s surprise if they do just that. The squad is stacked with superstars, while the other contenders have shown weakness in previous tournaments. 

Chovy mid and ADC Ruler are your usual headline acts. But don’t sleep on Canyon, the former Worlds champ who’s solid on objectives and enabling the team. Who actually pushes them in a final? It’s all up to Bilibili Gaming, Hanwha Life Esports, and T1.

BLG is China’s best hope and the strongest LPL team in years. With Worlds on home soil this year, they will have massive crowd support to push for the trophy. Mid laner Knight is one of the most decorated LPL players with multiple domestic titles, and fellow experienced top laner Bin backs him up.

Hanwha Life Esports and T1 have championship-calibre squads and will likely easily make it into the top four. Eventually, they’ll run into Gen.G, and that’s a puzzle they’ve been trying to solve domestically the whole season. HLE’s Viper and Zeus are already among the best in their roles globally, but they’ll have to put on flawless performances in high-pressure matches if they want to make it to the end. 

Meanwhile, reigning champions T1 barely qualified as LCK’s fourth seed and had to survive through five brutal matches against IG. Thankfully, Faker has made it through, and the viewership for the tournament is saved. The GOAT is making his 10th World appearance, but he’ll need to surpass and not just keep up with the skilled midlaners in the tournament.

Support Keria is undoubtedly the best in his role in the tournament, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to subpar performances. If T1 can fix its inconsistency, then it can settle its rivalry with Gen.G at the main stage.

These are the expected teams who will make it to the top four, but these next four teams surely deserve a spot in the top eight with the potential to make it further: Anyone’s Legend, FlyQuest, CTBC Flying Oyster, and Top Esports. If those squads go deep, the usual script gets spicy and messes with the expected regional pecking order.

This Worlds 2025, expect the full package: drama, cracked mechanics, and big-stage spectacle. Grudges, rivalries, lore, and regional flexing are all queued up. Korean teams are expected to attain high results, but Chinese squads could find their fighting spirit on home soil.

Not only that, but unexpected teams are slowly closing in on the competition, like with Flying Oyster, and there’s finally hope for the West with FlyQuest. Regardless of who makes it to the top, Gen.G will be there, and it’s all up to them to close out a historic season.