KT Rolster and Anyone’s Legend have become the first teams to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship 2025 Knockout Stage.

The teams secured a place in the next stage by defeating Top Esports and CTBC Flying Oysters, respectively, in the first BO3 match-ups of the Swiss Stage.

Fresh off the back of a surprising result against reigning champions T1, CTBC Flying Oysters (CFO) was unable to make its dream run to the Knockout Stage a reality, falling to Anyone’s Legends in a brilliant series.

The BO3 series already had a sense of anticipation; however, this was further intensified when Anyone’s Legend’s Li ‘Flandre’ Xuanjun surprisingly picked Kled in the game one draft. Despite Anyone’s Legend coming into the match-up as the favourite, CFO held its ground in the early game.

Whilst the LPL team picked up the first kill and tower, as well as two dragons, the LCP first seed recorded a small gold lead. After a relatively passive early game, the match went into full gear in the 18th minute around the dragon pit. After securing four kills and zero deaths, CFO took control of the rift, slaying the third dragon and claiming the Atakahn in another tense team fight. 

Despite having the upper hand, however, Anyone’s Legend refused to back down. With the LCP representative looking to close the game out, veteran jungler Lee ‘Tarzan’ Seung-yong stole the Baron for Anyone’s Legend in the 30th minute. However, CFO quickly replied, wiping the LPL second seed off the map to maintain momentum. 

A Quadra Kill from Chiu ‘Doggo’ Tzu-Chuan on Corki in the 38th minute concluded a surprisingly dominant game from CFO, recording a 38-minute 20-5 win. 

Game two started a lot more on the front foot, with both teams trading kills in the first 15 minutes. However, in a complete reversal of game one, it was CFO that had the dragon lead but failed to claim the third objective in the 18th minute. This time, Anyone’s Legend took the crucial team fight to build a gold lead. 

As focus turned towards the Atakhan, both sides made attempts to steal this crucial objective. Ultimately, though, Anyone’s Legends stole the fourth dragon of the game and the Atakahn in the 25th minute. 

In spite of CFO putting up a valiant effort in game two, Anyone Legends’ solid team fight execution saw the Chinese side level the score 1-1 with a 30-minute 18-11 victory. Player of the game undoubtedly went to Cui ‘Shanks’ Xiaojun, whose Orianna racked up a KDA of 5/1/10.

With a place in the Knockout stages on the line, game three started incredibly tense, with one kill a piece by the 15th-minute mark.

However, in the end, it was Shanks on the LeBlanc that proved to be too much for CTBC Flying Oysters. After securing three kills by the 17th minute, the AP champion managed to scale up to help bring home the series in front of AL’s home crowd.

A pivotal moment in the match came during the 20th minute as Anyone’s Legends secured the Atakhan, as well as an Ace, to gain momentum in the match. Ten minutes later, Top Esports would enter CFO’s base to record a 15-7 30-minute win.

The opening match of Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage round three saw League of Legends’ two best regions clash as the LPL’s Top Esports and LCK’s KT Rolster looked to secure an early entry into the Knockouts Stage. 

In the end, it was the South Korean representative that walked out victorious with a 2-0 victory. 

Game one provided a very similar narrative to all of KT Rolster’s matches so far. The LCK second seed was on the back foot in the early game, losing first blood and three dragons by the 17th minute. However, the game was defined by the mid-game.

By consistently denying Top Esports the Dragon Soul, as well as executing crucial team fights, KT Rolster was able to take control of the game. With the gold fairly even throughout the game, KT Rolster’s team fighting ability came into full effect around the Baron pit, killing its opponents and claiming the objective.  

A few minutes later, KT Rolster took down Top Esports’ Nexus to secure a 28-10 win. In particular, the game saw standout performances from Jungler Mun ‘Cuzz’ U-chan on Wukong (7/3/13 KDA) and Seo ‘deokdam’ Dae-gil’s Corki (9/1/11 KDA).

Whilst the first game showed glimmers of hope for Top Esports, the same couldn’t be said for game two. Despite Top Esports’ support player Fu ‘Hang’ Minghang managing to claim first blood for the team, KT’s superior objective control and aggression proved to be too much for the LPL side. 

A 26-minute Quadra Kill by Deokdam on Ezreal sealed Top Esports’ fate, as the team claimed the Baron, then Dragon Soul a few minutes later to win 18-7 in just under 30 minutes. As a result, KT Rolster, to the surprise of many, has ended the Swiss Stage with a 3-0 record and a spot in the Knockouts.

The League of Legends World Championship 2025 will continue round three of its Swiss Stage over the weekend, with 1-1 and 0-2 match-ups still to be played. 

For KT and Anyone’s Legend, the teams will have an elongated break until the Knockout stage, while Top Esports and CFO will once again be able to fight for qualification next week. 

On October 18th, the 1-1 matches will be played. These are as follows:

All matches will be streamed live on League of Legends’ official esports Twitch and YouTube channels, alongside accepted co-streamers. Games will kick off on October 18th at 9AM BST.