T1 survives against Anyone’s Legend to reach LoL Worlds 2025 semifinal

Today’s quarterfinal series at League of Legends Worlds 2025 saw Anyone’s Legend (AL) play against the reigning World Champion, T1.

Despite two convincing games, AL suffered a 3-2 defeat and became yet another LPL team taken out by the LCK legend, which has now advanced to the semifinal.

The first game of the series started uncannily slow, with both teams looking for safe engagement opportunities amidst their steady scaling. It took until minute 15 for first blood to be drawn on the Summoner’s Rift.

Having traded Grubs for the first Dragon, T1 could threaten the second drake to force a teamfight spearheaded by Faker and Keria. As a result, the Korean roster scored four kills, including first blood, and another drake on top.

T1’s dragon priority continued through the mid- and late-game. Although an overextension from Oner made the Atakhan unattainable, the reigning World champions secured Soul Point to maintain map pressure even as the Baron spawned.

AL was forced to defend the next dragon but suffered another teamfighting disaster following a punish on a flanking Flandre.

Fed with the Dragon Soul and Baron, T1 swiftly destroyed several AL towers, plus the top-lane inhibitor. From thereon, it was only a matter of time until a skirmish for the Elder Drake left AL with no means to defend its base. 

Game two saw T1 surprise the audience with its Draven and Anivia picks. Neither of them survived for long, though. Draven first fell victim to a three-minute top-gank from Tarzan, followed by the two other T1 laners being picked off. 

AL also put more priority on dragon stacking this time around, giving up grubs to score the first drake. Meanwhile, its LCK opponent couldn’t make any progress without suffering deaths.

After minute 20, T1 seemed to make a comeback, slaying the Atakhan and ACEing its enemy. However, the team then delivered AL an ACE of its own as its players desperately tried to defend the Baron. Leading in the majority of metrics, AL had an easy time marching into T1’s base to even out the match score.

For game three, AL continued to eat through T1’s champion pool, this time, picking Bart, Jarvan and Jhin. On top of that, the LPL team claimed first blood and the first dragon once again. Yet with both teams trading neutral objectives and having great engagement tools at their disposal, the game was quite even until AL reached Soul Point.

Throughout the back-and-forth, it was AL’s support player Kael who reliably delivered impactful Bart ultimates. T1’s Faker, on the other side, was caught off alone in the top lane just as the Mountain Soul was about to spawn. His teammates made a futile attempt at saving their Sylas and found themselves just as dead as the Unkillable Demon King himself.

Mountain Soul then allowed his team to buy crucial items and surpass T1 in terms of teamfighting strength. The result was more objectives, the Baron and the Elder Drake, in the pockets of AL. Shortly after, T1 had to concede its base as well as match point.

On the verge of Worlds elimination, T1 had to play Nocturne and Ornn into Mordekaiser, an excellent counter-pick from AL. Moreover, until Faker’s Viktor had scaled enough, Gumayusi had to step up and prove that his Kai’Sa was competitive. And Guma did just that. 

An extended skirmish saw T1 come out on top with four versus two kills and first blood. Whilst AL took the first dragon and Atakhan, T1 was in charge of dragon stacking later on. T1 also danced around the Baron until an advantageous opening allowed the Korean team to safely slay the coveted objective plus the Mountain Soul.

Gumayusi ended the game with a quadrakill, achieving a 11/4/10 kill-death ratio (KDA) and a 7,100 gold lead over the enemy ADC.

Thanks to Fearless Draft, game five delivered spicy team compositions. AL set up a Jinx first-pick, while T1’s Oner and Faker locked in Mundo and Mel for their first/second time in pro play.

In the early game, T1 was in firm control over the lanes and neutral objectives. Although Tarzan tried another 3-minute bot-gank, T1’s Keria managed to snipe first blood before his ADC could be burst down. In addition, the team quickly began stacking dragons.

Although T1’s scrappiness gifted AL several small windows to bounce back as well as a consistent gold lead, the LPL roster couldn’t stop the opponent from claiming the Atakhan and an early Hextech Soul. In just over 30 minutes, the Elder Dragon was secured.

For the next five minutes, T1 stayed grouped together until the team could lay claim to AL’s nexus and the series.

Following the final quarterfinals series today, Worlds 2025 is heading into its final three matches. 

The semifinals will kick off tomorrow at 7 AM BST with a best-of-five (BO5) series between LCK’s Gen.G Esports and KT Rolster. On Sunday, T1 will face another LPL team, Top Esports.

The winners of these matches will directly qualify for the League of Legends Worlds 2025 Grand Final on November 9th.