GEN vs TES – The CN-KR battle begins! – Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage Preview

After taking down T1, GEN will be fighting against TES in the qualification series for the Knockout stage at Worlds 2025. The two teams are coming with completely opposite trends: Gen.G lost a series against Anyone’s Legend but always looked convincing; Top Esports, instead, has been progressively struggling in maintaining their best form. Will TES have any tools to fight back or will Gen.G take the series? Find out in our breakdown.

GEN picking up their form again after the draft blunder against AL

As one of the biggest title contenders here at Worlds, Gen.G was initially expected to get through in convincing fashion in the Swiss Stage. Most people, including us, have put the LCK #1 seed in the 3-0 group in their Pick’Ems. That being said, Gen.G ended up dropping a Bo1 against AL, who were able to take advantage of the Poppy pick to snatch a victory, which allowed them to advance to the Knockout stage with no losses.

Nonetheless, the Korean team has looked strong in the other two matches, bringing their usual consistent gameplay and impeccable teamfighting. The major factor was their adaptation following the AL loss: Gen.G used the Poppy pick to send T1 to the 1-2 bracket. If Gen.G shows up as they have shown so far, there shouldn’t be much of fight.

WORLDS 2025 kicks off with a clean win | GEN vs PSG, AL, T1

🎬https://t.co/ncLLykYs2p pic.twitter.com/euAW7dtvKJ

— Gen.G Esports (@GenG) October 21, 2025

The team is recording top-tier numbers across the board, with incredible DPM from players like Chovy and Ruler, signaling that the carries are performing up to their expected level. Their early game rarely looks messy as they play a slow game. The slight question mark is Kiin‘s ability to handle the lane swap pressure: the top lane meta doesn’t allow him to take advantage of counter matchups as much since the priority picks are tanks like Sion and K’Sante.

It’s all about momentum for TES

After taking down G2 Esports and 100Thieves, the Chinese team was one of the teams expected to go through with a 3-0 score. However, their loss against KT Rolster was the proof that TES still has a lot of issues to fix.

The main one is their mental ability. Whenever the team starts to face some issues, their performance starts to crumble apart. This causes higher volatility which is never a good thing to have when the stakes are so high. Moreover, TES has had some questionable drafts and they seem to focus on wanting to counter the meta more than anything else. We’ll have to see whether they have been able to change their approach with the break.

There are no questions on the mechanical talent of the players, but it’s mainly their tendency to be overaggressive with little composure that doesn’t allow them to reach the expected success. When it works, TES looks like one of the best teams in the world; when it doesn’t, the team looks mid-pack at best.

Predictions – A one-sided series?

Overall, the expectations from this series is seeing Gen.G taking the victory. The odds are probably 70% to 30% in favor of the Korean team. The latter has proven to be much more consistent and this is probably enough to let them get the edge in a Best-of-three series.

For TES, the main opening will likely come from the jungle-mid duo: the team needs Creme and Kanavi to break Canyon’s legs and lower Chovy’s impact in the teamfights. Otherwise, this could end up being a quick 2-0 victory for Gen.G. Whoever loses will likely have an even worse time in the 2-2 bracket, as many other strong squads are expected to end up there, including BLG and T1.