Two major new contenders have officially joined the list of teams qualified for the
Esports World Cup. Winners of the tournament’s inaugural edition,
secured their place through the qualifier this Monday, while
also validated their qualification on Tuesday. Both teams defeated
, who therefore failed twice to secure a spot, though they could still qualify depending on the outcome of the
LCK season.
T1 and HLE now join
, who had already automatically qualified thanks to their triumph in last year’s edition. The competition, which is set to begin on July 15 in Paris and will feature sixteen participants, four more than last year, will therefore include four representatives from the LCK.
The reigning three-time world champions secured a perfect run through the qualifier, advancing without suffering a single defeat. After victories over
and
, T1 defeated Dplus KIA 3–1 on Monday to confirm qualification. Having taken the lead in the opening game, T1 encountered stronger resistance from DK in Game 2 before regaining control of the series. Despite Dplus KIA building a significant advantage in Game 4, T1 managed to find a comeback opportunity, notably through several clutch plays from
, to close out the qualification.
After initially falling to Dplus KIA in the upper bracket, Hanwha Life Esports responded emphatically. Having already defeated Nongshim RedForce the previous day, the current leaders of the LCK standings swept DK this time around to secure qualification. Led by another exceptional performance from
, including a perfect game on Fizz in Game 3, HLE gave their opponents virtually no room to respond and comfortably earned their place at the tournament.
Despite these two defeats, Dplus KIA can still hope to claim the fourth and final LCK spot at the competition. If HLE, T1, or Gen.G achieve the best result during the
Road to MSI, DK would qualify through its placement in the qualifier. However, should
or the final team participating in the Road to MSI outperform the others, that team would instead secure qualification for the Esports World Cup at Dplus KIA’s expense.
