Worlds 2026: LPL Suffers Historic Collapse as All Four Chinese Teams Lose on Day 1

This Friday saw the first day of the Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage, with eight consecutive best-of-one matches delivering their fair share of surprises, particularly when it came to the four League of Legends Pro League (LPL) teams, all of which lost their opening matches, a first for China in Worlds history.

First, Invictus Gaming fell to Gen.G in a relatively close game. Top Esports were then completely outclassed by a much stronger Hanwha Life Esports, before Bilibili Gaming and Anyone's Legend fell to Europe, losing to Movistar KOI and Karmine Corp, respectively.

China's first two defeats are fairly understandable. Seeing the third and fourth Chinese seeds fall to Korea's first and second seeds, widely considered the best teams in the world at the moment, is not particularly surprising. Moreover, IG were far from embarrassing themselves against Gen.G. Song "Rookie" Eui-jin had even built a solid lead on Aurora, and Zi "JiaQi" Jia-Qi's Worlds debut was fairly good, but it simply was not enough against the perfectly oiled machine that is Gen.G.

However, the series between HLE and TES was much more one-sided. It was the fastest game of the day, with Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo's Locke needing only 23 minutes to reach the Chinese team's Nexus. Even Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang on Lee Sin could do nothing against HLE's strength. On top of facing a very strong team, TES are unfortunately dealing with the absence of their starting toplaner, Cheng "ZUIAN" Zi-Hao, who was unable to obtain a visa for the US. He was urgently replaced by Bai "369" Jia-Hao, who had not played for several months.

While the first two defeats can be forgiven given the circumstances and the opponents, the other two may be harder for the Chinese audience to accept. BLG and MKOI played out a series that was largely dominated by the Spanish team, despite a few fights that nearly turned the tide. However, BLG simply could not find a way back into the game after the Spanish laners secured an early lead.

As for AL, they barely stood a chance against KC, whose botlane put on a strong performance with Kalista and Renata Glasc, while Kim "Canna" Chang-dong made some great plays on Jax to shut down the LPL champions.

To make matters worse, the LPL teams have not been handed the easiest draw for Round 2. The day will open on Saturday with a civil war between TES and AL, meaning that one Chinese team will inevitably fall to 0-2, a dangerous position that leaves them just one defeat away from elimination.

IG and BLG have received a somewhat more favorable draw, but neither matchup will be easy, as both teams will face a region's first seed. IG will have to take on Team Secret Whales, who lost a fairly disputed series against LYON, while BLG will face Team Liquid, who suffered a defeat against CTBC Flying Oyster following a strong performance from Zhao "Shad0w" Zhi-Qiang.