have done it. In one of the biggest upsets of MSI 2026 so far, the LCP representatives knocked out LPL second seed,
, with a 3–1 victory in the lower bracket. A team many expected to exit early instead stood tall under pressure and refused to slow down against one of the most feared teams in the tournament.
Teams from Vietnam have rarely broken through against LPL seeds at MSI or Worlds. While there have been moments over the years where the APAC teams have surprised international fans, full series wins at this level have been extremely rare. TSW’s victory over TES now stands as one of the clearest international breakthroughs for the region in recent memory, proving they can win against elite opponents on one of LoL Esports' biggest stages.
With this win over TES, TSW move forward in the lower bracket and will face either T1 or FURIA in another do-or-die match on July 8th.
How TSW defeated TES at MSI 2026
A feat already impressive in itself, the manner in which the Whales conducted the upset was even more shocking than the result itself. Not counting game two — which was a rather uncharacteristic flop from the Vietnamese representatives — TSW brought utter dominance and superior macro to the Rift throughout the best-of-five.
While TES opened game one with a successful play and first blood in the botlane, this small advantage was quickly swept under the rug as TSW rapidly opened up the map through back-to-back plays. A solo kill for
's Olaf, two kills in the dragon fight, and a failed invade from the Chinese representatives saw TSW quickly find themselves with a lead of more than 2,000 gold less than 15 minutes into the game. Though the Vietnamese took their time to close it out, they remained on top for the rest of the game, winning at 32 minutes with a 14k gold lead.
An anomaly in the League of Legends esports sphere, the Whales' victory was quickly offset by a dominant win from Top Esports in game two, which seemed to indicate that balance would be restored at MSI 2026. TSW, however, had other plans.
Without wasting a minute, the LCP champions fired back in game three, quickly blowing the game open through superior objective setup and a miraculous dragon fight, despite having given up a few kills earlier in the game. Catch after catch, the gold lead quickly deepened, leaving Top Esports hemorrhaging and desperately trying to tame their opponents, to no avail. Once more, Pun proved to be a pivotal difference-maker through his pocket Sett pick, which truly brought a stop to TES' show and proved who was the boss that day.
Contrary to the previous three games, game four was much more back and forth. A series that had thus far consisted only of stomps reached its climax, as the two opponents gave it their all on the Rift — TSW to engrave Vietnam's international capabilities into history, and TES to wash away the shame of their international track record. The rest, though, was history. A sneaky Baron Nashor and a catch on
completely turned a game that seemed to be slipping out of TSW's hands, who soon after pushed for the Nexus, taking down their third Nexus of MSI and advancing to face the losers of BLG versus LYON.
Is “the gap” closing?
Looking back at LoL Esports’ international history, LPL teams have usually dominated the matches against “minor regions.” At past MSI and Worlds events, Chinese second seeds in particular have almost always pushed deep into the tournament, often reaching semifinals or better. Even when they were challenged by wildcard or emerging regions, they typically closed out series with experience and macro control. That made TES heavy favorites heading into this match, with most expecting them to stabilize after early pressure.
Even standout performances — like
CTBC Flying Oyster pushing T1 at last year's MSI — have mostly stopped short of full Bo5 wins, showing just how high "the gap" has remained on the international stage.
However, there have been signs of progress in recent years, with teams occasionally showing they can contest more than just a few individual games against elite teams. So what today’s result does is also raising is a bigger question about where the global gap actually stands right now.
Just a few days ago, G2 Esports had already taken a series off TES, and across MSI 2026 there have been signs that the LPL’s top teams are not as untouchable as they once were. BLG managed a win over T1, but even that series did not look as dominant or clean as some of its past performances on the international stage. As a result, it is becoming harder to say whether this is purely “minor regions closing the gap,” or if it is TES and the LPL more broadly failing to consistently meet their own historical standard.
And if we take a step back we can see that — exception made for BLG’s trophy at First Stand a few months ago — the LPL hasn’t managed to bring home an international trophy in over 3 years. But whether this signals a true power shift or just a temporary slip in form remains unclear, after all, this is not the first time hopes of seeing “the gap” closing have risen in LoL Esports’ history.
