LoL Worlds Knockout Stage Preview: Schedule and predictions

Naerlyn Published November 3, 2026

The League of Legends World Championship is going strong, and the last stretch starts today. Eight teams have qualified for the playoffs, and they will play from November 3rd to November 14th, until one team claims the Summoner’s Cup. Here’s our LoL Worlds Knockout Stage preview.

Event overview

LoL Worlds Knockout Stage format and schedule

Like every year, the LoL Worlds Knockout Stage is a single-elimination bracket. All matches are best-of-five and use Fearless Draft. The schedule is as follows:

• November 3: Quarterfinal 1 (Top Esports vs Invictus Gaming)
• November 4: Quarterfinal 2 (Gen.G vs LYON)
• November 5: Quarterfinal 3 (Dplus KIA vs Bilibili Gaming)
• November 6: Quarterfinal 4 (Karmine Corp vs T1)
• November 7: Semifinal 1
• November 8: Semifinal 2
• November 14: Grand final

T1 could win their seventh LoL World Championship. Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games

LoL Worlds Knockout Stage prize pool

The LoL Worlds prize pool is of a total of $5,000,000. This amount is shared among all participants to the World Championship, meaning that 24% of it goes to the 11 teams that have already been eliminated. The rest is shared as follows:

LoL Worlds Knockout prediction guide

As the biggest esports event of the year, the League of Legends World Championship is home to a variety of predictions. Now that the quarterfinal matchups are drawn, the field is different. Here’s our LoL World Knockout Stage preview for predictions. (The tables show the market-implied chances for the corresponding props.)

LoL Worlds winner prediction

On Polymarket, 4am CET on Nov. 3, volumes of $10m and $161k respectively. 

The prediction market for the LoL Worlds winner. Image Credit: Polymarket

The market has Gen.G as the winner of LoL Worlds, and they’re the favorites without a doubt. The problem is that even while being the favorites, they’ve so far never managed to reach the grand final, nevermind win it.

This makes this prediction very tricky. It’s hard to call it against Gen.G because they have shown to be the current best team in the world. It’s also just as hard to pick them when they’ve found a way to choke in the last stretch every single time.

As for their odds of reaching the final, this should be the year that they can do it. Gen.G’s first match is against LYON, which has got to go their way. Then, they’ll go up against the winner of Top Esports vs Invictus Gaming, neither of which should be the team to knock them out. However, the same was said of KT Rolster last year…

Will T1 win Worlds?

The next candidate in line is T1, and they’re the opposite tale. T1 is nowhere near one of the best teams at this event. Yet that hasn’t stopped them from winning the last three World Championships. Karmine Corp has a (small) chance against them, then Bilibili Gaming will be favored, while Dplus KIA would be an even match-up.

If we forget that they’re T1, their odds of reaching the final are alright. As for winning, it shouldn’t happen if we expect the other finalist to be Gen.G. However, T1 always transforms in the LoL Worlds Knockout Stage. At the same time, 2026 marked their worst ever Mid-Season Invitational placement.

Should their magic not happen, BLG would be the next best candidate to reach the final. They’re also the most likely team to stop Gen.G then.

Bilibili Gaming is the sole LPL representative in the second half of the LoL Worlds Knockout. Image Credit: Yicun Liu / Riot Games

LoL Worlds winning region prediction

On Polymarket, 4am CET on Nov. 3, volume of $2m. 

Since the start of LoL Worlds, the LCK has gained, while the LPL and mostly LEC went down. For the LEC, this comes as a result of G2’s surprising underperformance, shared by the LCS as well.

The LPL has also had a rocky ride. China started 0-4, then their first seed went out 0-3. Afterwards, their other best team had to qualify through a 3-2. This leaves Top Esports and Invictus Gaming, who had no hopes placed on them.

As for the LCK, the bracket helps them. The only realistic scenario where they don’t win is if Bilibili Gaming manages to beat the whole gauntlet of DK, T1, and Gen.G.

LoL Worlds prediction markets. Image Credit: Polymarket

LoL Worlds Knockout miscellaneous predictions

Grand final region match-up: The prediction market puts LCK vs LPL above LCK vs LCK, and this should require TES/IG to beat Gen.G or BLG to win against T1. It’s indeed very likely that one of them happens and not the other.

Most kills at Worlds: Caliste “Caliste” Henry-Hennebert is in the lead in both predictions and current standings. At 81 kills, he blows away Zhuo “Knight” Ding’s 45 and Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk’s 25. However, he’s also played 18 games, against their respective eight and five.

Even if they should play two more best-of-fives, Ruler shouldn’t catch up with an average of five kills a game. Knight shouldn’t either if KC loses now and BLG next, with a 36-kill lead to catch up on.

Featured Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff / Riot Games