LoL - LCK: Hanwha Life Esports qualify for Worlds after a clean sweep against T1

Shock in the LCK this Sunday, September 14. After three best-of-threes during the Summer Split regular season, all won by T1 against Hanwha Life Esports, it was HLE who came out on top today — and it wasn’t even close. A clean 3-0 from the reigning First Stand champions secures their spot in the Worlds 2025 main event.

They now join KT Rolster in the Upper Bracket Final, after KT also pulled off an upset yesterday with a 3-2 win over Gen.G, who had only dropped one best-of series all year. This leaves T1 in Lower Bracket Round 2 and Gen.G in Round 3, meaning one of them will claim Korea’s fourth seed at Worlds. That team will face the LPL’s fourth seed in the Play-In round, a single best-of-five that decides who advances to the main stage.

In game one, T1 drafted with very little damage, running Galio and Sion in the solo lanes, leaving Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong’s Kai’Sa as their only real carry. HLE, meanwhile, fielded three carries with Aurora top, Orianna mid, and Lucian bot. They secured good fights, chained objectives, and nearly closed the game, but a huge Kai’Sa play from Gumayusi along with clutch resilience from Choi "Doran" Hyeon-joon and Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok kept T1 alive. Ultimately though, HLE closed it out.

Game two started even better for HLE, with Han "Peanut" Wang-ho participating in 100% of early kills and snowballing his Vi. T1 attempted a surprise Atakhan, but it failed, the fight swung HLE’s way, and Peanut easily secured the objective. T1 later managed to steal Nashor and found a favorable trade, but a decisive fight at Mountain Soul went HLE’s way, giving them match point.

Throughout the series, HLE targeted Faker in draft, banning his champions and picking away from him with Orianna in game one and Ryze in game two. In game three, HLE pulled off a lane swap between Park "Viper" Do-hyeon and Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, with Yoo "Delight" Hwan-joong joining his AD carry top after the punish window, also finding a gank on Faker mid. T1 struck back with a strong fight and a double for Gumayusi, and overall the reigning two-time world champions played more comfortably on that draft.

But the HLE mid-jungle duo won the 2v2 against T1’s, keeping the game in reach. Even though T1 maintained a lead and looked set to win, when going for Soul, Viper’s Smolder pulled off a desperate steal that denied them the buff. From there, HLE came back from over 3k gold down and completed the clean sweep over T1.

The next LCK match will take place on Wednesday, September 17, with an elimination showdown between Dplus KIA and BNK FearX. The winner will face T1 the following day in a do-or-die best-of series, with Worlds 2025 qualification also on the line. On September 20, HLE and KT Rolster will clash for a spot in the LCK grand final.

Then on the 21st, Gen.G will take on one of the three teams climbing through the lower bracket, in a match that not only secures a main stage slot but also determines who will compete in the final two best-ofs at Inspire Arena in Incheon, where the lower bracket final and grand final will be held from September 27 to 28 to determine the sole LCK 2025 champion.