'Telecom Derby' showdown: T1 and KT Rolster face off in all-Korean Worlds
South Korea is sweeping this year's global League of Legends stage, with Faker’s T1 and veteran squad KT Rolster charging into the 2025 World Championship Finals set for Friday in Chengdu, China.
League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), the Korean professional League of Legends league long recognized for its dominance in esports, has produced both finalists this year — marking the first all-Korean Worlds final since DRX faced T1 in 2022.
Both T1 and KT Rolster have endured grueling runs throughout this year’s Worlds.
T1 entered the tournament as LCK’s fourth and lowest seed, forcing the team to start from the play-in stage. In the five-round Swiss Stage, featuring 16 teams, T1 stumbled early with losses to Taiwan’s CTBC Flying Oyster and fellow Korean powerhouse Gen.G, briefly finding themselves on the brink of elimination. The team rallied, however, notching wins over the US’ 100 Thieves and Spain’s Movistar KOI to advance to the Knockout Stage with a tight 3-2 record.
In the quarterfinals, T1 edged out China’s Anyone’s Legend in a five-game series before sweeping Chinese giant Top Esports 3-0 in the semifinals.
The victory secures T1’s third consecutive Worlds Finals appearance, as the team, led by the legendary Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, now eyes an unprecedented three-peat.
KT Rolster’s journey also began on uneven ground, entering as the LCK’s third seed. Despite their lower seeding, the team stormed through the competition, passing the Swiss Stage with a 3-0 record — the first team to achieve the feat this year.
The team then dispatched CTBC Flying Oyster 3-0 in the quarterfinals before pulling off an upset over top seed Gen.G, winning 3-1 to advance to the Worlds Finals for the first time in its 13-year history.
Now, eyes are on the finals as the two teams meet in a World Championship showdown for the first time. Dubbed the Telecom Derby, the matchup pits T1, backed by SK Telecom, against KT Rolster, sponsored by KT, two rival Korean telecom giants.
According to Riot Games, T1 still holds a decisive head-to-head edge over KT. Since 2020, T1 has defeated KT 26 times in 32 official matches. Yet momentum seems to be shifting.
“KT Rolster is on such an upward trajectory that its past head-to-head record no longer seems to matter. Among all the teams competing in this year’s World Championship, KT has played the fewest matches while maintaining the highest win rate by set,” said a Riot Games official in a press release Tuesday.
“After sweeping all three matches in the Swiss Stage — winning all four sets — and securing 3-0 and 3-1 victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, KT achieved an impressive set win rate of 90.9 percent,” the statement added.
Still, KT’s approach may have grown somewhat predictable. The team often leans on its early dragon prioritization, a strategy designed to secure major teamwide buffs but one that veteran squads like T1 may be prepared to exploit.
Pressure could also play a role. With no prior experience on the World Finals stage, unlike their rival T1, who holds five World Championship titles (2013, 2015, 2016, 2023 and 2024), KT Rolster may find managing the nerves of such a make-or-break live event to be their toughest challenge yet.
T1 may also boast stronger overall fundamentals than KT, particularly in the bottom lane — largely considered one of the most pivotal areas on the map — where the world-class duo Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyung and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok hold command.
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