LoL - Worlds 2025: Gen.G, the eye of the Tiger (16/17)

The League of Legends 2025 World Championship kicks off in Beijing on the 14th of October. A total of 17 teams will compete to, again, succeed T1 at the top of the Riot Games MOBA world hierarchy. On this occasion, Sheep Esports brings you a daily feature on one of the teams taking part. On October 12th, the sixteenth episode of our series focuses on Gen.G.

The giants among giants — that’s the best way to describe Gen.G heading into Worlds 2025. After a year that can only be defined as dominant, the Korean powerhouse arrives as one of the tournament’s runaway favorites, ready to chase the one title that has slipped through their fingers time and again: the Summoner’s Cup.

Gen.G enters Worlds with a revamped botlane compared to 2024, welcoming back the iconic Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk and pairing him with one of the most surprising stories of the year: Joo "Duro" Min-kyu, a 23-year-old support who went from rookie to champion in just a single year. Together, they’ve formed an unbreakable duo and a cornerstone of Gen.G’s 2025 success.

Throughout the entire year, Gen.G have only dropped a handful of matches. Their six defeats came at the hands of only four different teams: OKSavingsBank BRION, as well as T1, Hanwha Life Esports, and KT Rolster. In total, they lost four matches in the LCK, including one during the regular season to T1 and another to KT Rolster in the recent playoffs. That's how dominant they have been all year.

That success has been nothing short of historic. The team shattered records with a 27-series win streak across the LCK, MSI and the Esports World Cup. Despite dropping the LCK Cup to Hanwha Life Esports, Gen.G dominated every other event, claiming the LCK title, the 2025 Mid-Season Invitational, and even the Esports World Cup with near-total authority. The Summer Split playoffs proved slightly trickier, but the result remained the same: another championship, carried by Ruler’s resurgence and the team’s unstoppable synergy.

What makes Gen.G terrifying isn’t just their individual brilliance — it’s their depth. With five players capable of taking over a game, they operate with a safety net few other teams can dream of. If one player falters, another steps up and destroys the opposition. That adaptability has defined their era.

Throughout League of Legends' history, the greatest stories have been written on the Worlds stage — the place where everything that happened during the season can be turned upside down in an instant. Gen.G knows this better than anyone. Since inheriting Samsung Galaxy’s Worlds slot in 2018, they’ve yet to lift the Summoner’s Cup despite assembling rosters stacked with some of the best talent in the world.

The arrival of Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon in 2022 propelled Gen.G into an era of domestic domination. Under his leadership, the organization has claimed all five of its LCK titles and back-to-back MSI victories in 2024 and 2025. Yet, even with all the accolades, the ultimate prize remains elusive — and Chovy’s legend continues to feel incomplete without it.

Gen.G’s Worlds record tells a story of brilliance and heartbreak. They’ve qualified for seven of the eight possible editions since 2018, missing only 2019. Their best runs came in 2021, 2022, and 2024 — all ending in semifinal defeats to the eventual world champions: EDward Gaming, DRX, and T1, respectively. For Chovy, the narrative has become painfully familiar: six Worlds appearances, four quarterfinals, two semifinals, and each time, the finish line just out of reach.

Now, Gen.G arrives at Worlds 2025 with what many consider the strongest “Exodia” roster ever assembled — talent stacked in every role, led by two players whose names define an era. Chovy, long regarded as the best midlaner in the world, has been the engine of Gen.G’s dominance, marrying surgical precision with unshakable consistency. Nobody can outmatch him on the midlane. Yet the ultimate crown still eludes him, and this tournament stands as the definitive test of whether he can turn greatness into immortality.

Beside him stands Ruler, the legendary marksman whose return to Gen.G has ignited one of the most feared botlanes in history. Already celebrated as the greatest AD carry of all time, Ruler enters Worlds with renewed hunger, having not lifted the Summoner’s Cup since his triumph with Samsung Galaxy in 2017. With Duro at his side, Ruler has rediscovered his peak form last Summer, blending mechanical precision and killer instinct into a lethal offensive weapon.

As the curtains rise on Worlds 2025, Gen.G stands poised at the edge of destiny. They’ve conquered everything else — the LCK, MSI — yet the Summoner’s Cup remains just out of reach. With Chovy seeking the moment that will define his legacy, Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu and Ruler chasing their second world title, anything less than victory would feel like unfinished business. This isn’t just another Worlds run. This is Chovy’s proving ground. This is Ruler’s return to glory. This is all of Gen.G players' time to prove they are the best in their respective roles. And also the organization's best chance yet to capture the title that has haunted them for years.