LoL: Why Gen.G isn't qualified for Worlds 2025 yet?

Gen.G made history last weekend by winning the MSI 2025 in Vancouver, defeating T1 3-2 in a very thrilling final. Yet, they’re still not fully qualified for the World Championship 2025. This situation isn’t a mistake or an oversight—it’s the result of a Worlds qualification rule introduced in 2024 by Riot Games.

Since the 2024 season, Riot decided that the MSI winner would indeed earn an automatic slot for at least Worlds Play-In phase— but only under one condition: the team must also reach the playoffs stage of their domestic Summer Split, known officially as Round 3-5.

In other words, Gen.G still needs to finish the LCK Summer Split regular season high enough to qualify for the playoff bracket. To do that, they must place in the top four among the five teams currently in the Legend Group. If they fail to do so, they’ll have to qualify through the LCK Play-In bracket, where they’ll face the top teams from the Rise Group. Once they make it to playoffs, their MSI champion slot becomes official and their ticket to Worlds 2025 is secured.

If, against all expectations, Gen.G fails to make playoffs, they would also lose that guaranteed spot and would even miss Worlds altogether — although considering their current level of play and consistency, this remains highly unlikely. The rule itself exists since 2024 and marks a deliberate shift in Riot’s approach to balancing domestic and international performance. Thus, if Gen.G manages to qualify for playoffs, their MSI slot would be activated, and the remaining three Worlds spots would then go to the top three other teams finishing in the playoff bracket, excluding Gen.G’s position.

Previously, the qualification system looked quite different. Before 2024, winning MSI never guaranteed a direct spot at Worlds. Instead, the reward typically went to the region of the winning team, which might receive an extra seed at Worlds. In 2024, Riot refined this system to bring more value to the competition and decided that the winner of the second international tournament would benefit from an advantage to qualify easily to the most prestigious competition of the year.

But to keep domestic competition meaningful in Summer, they still require the MSI winner to make it to the Summer Split playoffs. The new rule ensures that a team must continue to perform well at home, even after international glory, to claim their place at Worlds. The idea is to strike a balance: reward excellence on the global stage, but not at the cost of regional competitiveness. In the end, Gen.G’s MSI 2025 victory places them within reach of the World Championship, but not quite over the finish line.