The Worlds 2025 Finals are set. T1 took down AL and TES to give themselves a shot at the three-peat. Coming all the way from the play-in match against iG, it would be sensational if the Korean organization could take their sixth World Championship.
KT, on the other hand, have already secured their highest placement at Worlds. Previously, their best result was 5th–8th in 2015, 2018, and 2023. But this time, they’ve only dropped a single on their way to the finals.
An uneven matchup
If you haven’t played video games, but use the internet semi-regularly, you probably know Faker. If you’ve played pretty much any competetive online video game in the last 10 years, you definitely know him. The unkillable demon king or simply greatest League of Legends player of all time.
But even if you play LoL regularly, there’s a good chance you don’t know a single player from KT Rolster. Combined the KT roster has a total of five LCK titles – three from Cuzz and two from Bdd, with deokdam, Peter and PerfecT having no titles.
On the T1 side, they have 17 titles combined – 10 of which comes on the back of Faker, with Doran having four, Oner, Gumayusi and Keria having just one. Faker alone has as many Worlds titles as KT has LCK titles.
While T1 have the experience and pedigree to enter the finals as heavy favorites, prior titles do not win games in the present. This KT team is not a legendary roster, but they are not rookies either.
Almost unbeaten
While Faker and T1 have had the advantage in the past, this year KT are looking hot. They have dropped only a single game at Worlds so far, and that was against the LCK number one seed Gen.G, the pre-tournament favorite.
Their road, however, has not been the hardest. They started by dispatching MKOI and TSW before beating TES 2-0 to secure playoffs. There, they got the best draw possible, CFO. While CFO have looked good, they rely a lot on Doggo, so KT shut him down and won the series 3-0.
Going into the semifinals, Gen.G were the heavy favorites, but KT had already beaten them in a Bo5 not too long ago. After four crazy games going back and forth, KT took a 3-1 victory, with Bdd simply gapping Chovy in the mid lane.
So far, there cannot really be any doubt. Bdd has been the best player at Worlds 2025. But is it enough to take down Faker and T1?
The Telekom wars: a historical perspective
The match between T1 and KT has long been known as the Telekom Wars. When I say long, I do not mean from the start of League of Legends, but from the early 2000s in StarCraft. Since then, both teams have had significant rebrands. T1 used to be known as SKT T1, and KT Rolster competed as KT Rolster Bullets and KT Rolster Arrows.
As we are not StarCraft experts, we will let someone else explain that era of the Telekom Wars and instead start from the era of League of Legends.
The League of Legends Telekom Wars
On April 24, 2013, the two Telekom teams met each other for the first time. For KT Rolster Bullets, this was the start of a rivalry they had little chance of winning. SK Telecom T1 K took down KT 2-0 in Korea Champions Spring, and a little later that year in the summer split, SKT beat them again, this time in the finals, for their first ever Korean title.
In 2015, when sister teams disappeared, the rivalry really lit up. Instead of there being two SKTs and two KTs, the organizations had to concentrate their best players on one team.
2015 was once again the year of SKT and not KT. SKT won both the spring and summer splits in the inaugural year of the LCK. Later that year, they also won their second Worlds title. A small consolation prize for KT was qualifying for their first ever World Championship. They placed second in the Regional Finals after losing 1-3 to SKT.
SKT started 2016 strongly, winning both the spring split and their first MSI title. They faltered a little in the summer split, placing third, but the championship points they had earned were enough to secure an invite to Worlds.
KT Rolster actually finished higher than SKT in the summer split, securing second place, but they fell in the Regional Finals to Samsung Galaxy. SKT went on to beat Samsung Galaxy in the finals of Worlds 2016 in an epic Bo5 that went the full five games.
Different gravy
The following years for KT and SKT were not really close. While KT did win their first and only LCK title in the 2018 summer split and placed high in other splits, they never truly left their mark internationally or in Korea, even being relegated after placing ninth in the 2019 spring split.
In the meantime, SKT did not immediately add to their World Championship tally, but they still performed. In 2017 they won the LCK spring split and placed second at both Worlds and the LCK summer split. 2018 was a year to forget, but in 2019 they won both LCK splits and placed 3rd–4th at both MSI and Worlds.
From 2020 onward, SKT rebranded as simply T1, while KT Rolster kept their name. What T1 did carry over from the SKT era was the ability to win when it mattered.
They won the LCK spring split in 2020, though the rest of the year was one to forget. KT probably felt the same way, as their highest placement from 2019 to 2022 was fifth, which they achieved in the 2020 spring split and the 2022 summer split.
In 2022, T1 were back on track. They won the spring split and then placed second at MSI, Worlds, and in the summer split. The big international victory was close, but they could not reach it. That changed in 2023.
Unlike 2022, T1 secured no LCK titles that year, but they placed second in both splits, which gave them a place at Worlds, where they dominated, dropping only two games the whole tournament, one against Gen.G in the Swiss stage and one against JDG in their semifinal Bo5, which ended 3-1 for T1. This was T1’s fourth Worlds title.
2024 was a repeat year for T1. They did not win an LCK split, but they won Worlds after a rewatch-worthy final against BLG, which ended 3-2 in T1’s favor. This time it was for the back-to-back title and their fifth overall.
In the meantime, KT only qualified for Worlds in 2023 after winning the Regional Finals over Hanwha Life Esports, but they placed 5th–8th as they fell to JDG in the quarterfinals.
To summarize, this so-called Telekom War is not really a war. It is more of a massacre, as KT have only ever won a single LCK split, while T1 have 10 LCK titles, five World Championships, two MSI titles, and a single Esports World Cup.
The Worlds Finals
The matchup might not look great on paper, but with the form KT’s players are in, anything can happen. In the Gen.G vs. KT series, we saw Bdd totally outclass Chovy, who many people believe has been the best player in the world over the past two years.
On a stage like this, anything can happen. While it is unlikely that T1 choke, since they are hardened veterans, KT have looked even better under the lights than in the LCK.
The Worlds 2025 Final will be played this Sunday at 08:00 CET. Set an alarm and get ready for an epic grand final that could easily go the full five games.
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