The playoffs of the first
World Star Challengers Invitational 2026 edition
, the “Worlds of Tier 2”,
will take place from September 27 to October 2 in a single-elimination bracket. The eight teams that qualified for the final stage of the tournament are the three EMEA teams, Movistar KOI Fénix, Solary & Galions, and the four LCK CL organizations, DK Challengers, T1 Esports Academy, KT Challengers, and DNS Challengers, as well as the NACL team, Cupid eSports.
From now on, every series will be played in a best-of-five format, and the tournament will conclude on October 2 with the Grand Final. The WSCI leaves no room for mistakes, since dropping a series in the playoff stage means that your chances of being crowned the best Tier 2 team in the world disappear. Per sources who shared information with Sheep Esports, the playoffs bracket will be as follows:
WSCI Playoffs Bracket. Credit: Sheep Esports
The first round of the playoffs features two matchups between teams from the same region. Solary will once again face an EMEA representative, with a match against MKOI Fénix up next. On the same side of the bracket, DNS and Dplus's LCK CL teams will face each other one final time this season.
EMEA reigned supreme in the Group Stage
Before the tournament kicked off, everyone thought LCK Challengers teams would reign undisputed over the rest of the world. If the four Korean teams eventually qualified,
the first days of WSCI showed that European Tier 2 is at the top. Even the “worst” team on paper from EMEA, MKOI Fénix, showed the region's strength in young talent. Movistar KOI’s academy team was the first to qualify for the Playoff stage, winning their first four matches and demolishing teams of
KT Rolster Challengers’ calibre in under 25 minutes.
Movistar KOI had a more difficult second half of the group stage, suffering two losses that allowed KT to finish at the top of Group B with a 5-1 record. Solary also had a clean Group Stage, beating their co-nationals
Galions twice to stay undefeated until the end of this phase (6-0).
T1.EA bounced back
The first Korean team to qualify for the next phase with four consecutive wins was Dplus KIA Challengers, who quickly took over NA, Brazil, and APAC. Dplus ultimately lost just one game in Group D, against Cupid, who also finished with a 5-1 record. T1 EA, meanwhile, entered the competition as the tournament favorites. After a minor stumble against EDG Youth Team in their opening match, they went on to win their next five games in a row.
