Gen.G and Top Esports will face each other on Thursday, October 23, for a spot in the quarterfinals, with both teams sitting at 2-1 in these Worlds — a surprising situation for the LCK, Mid-Season Invitational, and Esports World Cup champions, who were widely expected to qualify without dropping a single round. It will be the first clash of the year between the two teams.

Indeed, the two teams haven’t faced each other this year. Their last encounters date back to last season, with three best-of series: the first at MSI, where Gen.G led 2-0 before almost getting reverse swept, eventually closing it out 3-2. A few months later, they met again at the EWC quarterfinals in a best-of-three, this time won by the Chinese team. Finally, at Worlds later that year, Gen.G took the best-of-one in Round 2. Overall, Gen.G leads 2-1 in series, but both teams are tied 4-4 in individual games.

Gen.G, meeting with destiny

Gen.G are clearly the favorites of this tournament, and by extension, of this best-of-three. As the LPL’s third seed, TES will have to take on a massive challenge in trying to bring down Gen.G — an achievement that isn’t entirely out of reach, given that Anyone’s Legend, a team TES actually defeated in the LPL, already managed to do so back in Round 2. The Korean side have so far taken down PSG Talon and T1, while TES started strong with wins over G2 Esports and 100 Thieves before being stopped by KT Rolster.

More broadly, Gen.G’s year speaks for itself. After a shaky start marked by missed titles at the LCK Cup and First Stand, the team turned into an unstoppable machine — going undefeated in the Spring Split, then winning both the MSI and the EWC. They came back in Summer to break the record for consecutive series wins and claimed the LCK title. The team looks perfectly in sync and hungrier than ever for the one trophy that still eludes them — the Worlds title.

On TES’s side, the year has been rather shaky. They had a very strong first split, but the First Stand and Split 2 were disappointing. However, they bounced back in Summer, finishing first in the regular season. In playoffs, they reached the final but fell to Bilibili Gaming, which sent them to the Regional Finals — a stage they navigated with ease. They now arrive at Worlds determined to prove themselves and shake off their reputation as international chokers.

Canyon vs Kanavi, who will come out on top?

Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu and Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok will very likely be the keys to this matchup, even though all ten players are among the best in the world at their positions. The two junglers have faced each other five times in their careers — all at Worlds — and Kanavi holds the edge. In 2020, Canyon was playing for DAMWON Gaming while Kanavi was with JD Gaming; the two teams met twice, splitting the results. In 2022, they crossed paths again in the group stage and once more split the points, which led to a tiebreaker that Kanavi won in a Vi game.

Despite Kanavi’s head-to-head advantage, the current reality is that Gen.G enter this matchup as clear favorites and in better form than TES. The series could quickly swing in their favor, although TES is fully capable of creating chaos on Summoner’s Rift and taking the win — and if that chaos happens, it will likely be through Kanavi, one of the world’s best junglers right now.

Looking at their stats over the year, Kanavi has played 27 different champions compared to 20 for Canyon. Another key figure is damage per minute: Kanavi sits at 536, while Canyon is at 444, highlighting how much TES relies on their jungler as a source of damage, slightly more than Gen.G does. Kanavi also boasts a higher kill participation rate.

A point in Canyon’s favor is his contribution to first bloods: he is involved in over one-third of Gen.G’s first kills, compared to just under 5% for Kanavi. Canyon often finds the first action for his team, but this is also partly due to the LCK’s pace, where action typically ramps up around the fifteenth minute of the game — much later than in the LPL, where fights happen very early.