T1 takes down DK to snatch last train to Worlds 2025

After being sent to the lower bracket by Hanwha Life Esports (HLE), T1 defeated Dplus KIA (DK) in the second round of the lower bracket of the 2025 LCK Season Finals, locking in a top-four finish and a guaranteed ticket to the League of Legends World Championship 2025.

T1 shows up on the day led by a dominant Oner

For T1, winning was the only acceptable outcome heading into this series. After the crushing 0-3 defeat to HLE, the team was forced into the lower bracket, where every step toward the LCK title would mean going against all the top teams. Before they could even dream of lifting the trophy, however, T1 first needed to lock in their ticket to Worlds 2025—crossing roads with ShowMaker’s DK, a team equally desperate to keep their Worlds hopes alive. In the end, T1 left no room for doubt. With a dominant performance, they ended DK’s run and secured their place among the LCK’s top four, guaranteeing at least a spot in the Worlds play-in stage.

DK Strike First as usual

If matches were Best-of-one series, DK would probably be one of the strongest teams in the world. In a typical fashion, the team got the first game of the series, using the strong top-jungle duo of Renekton and Trundle to open the map and get both side lane turrets. Paired with the scaling duo carry of Cassiopeia and Corki, DK started taking control of the game from the 16-minute mark, slowly stacking dragons and increasing the gold advantage. By the 29th minute, having already captured an early Baron and three dragons, DK marched down mid to lead the score 1-0.

Oner is Him

T1 immediately answered back in the second game, with Oner stealing all the spotlight. T1 went for a standard teamfight composition with a strong engage duo of Alistar and Jarvan IV and high DPS from Gumayusi‘s Sivir. While the ADC was supposedly the biggest threat for DK to deal with, it was Oner who ended up being the troublemaker.

PENTAKILL for ONER!! #LCK pic.twitter.com/s5MCBnk7uC

— LCK (@LCK) September 18, 2025

After dominating a teamfight right before Baron spawned, dashing around and buying time for the rest of the team to clean up the enemies, T1’s jungler ended up picking up a pentakill in the game-deciding fight. Oner ended with a 9/1/11 KDA as T1 equalized the score.

From game 2 onwards, DK never recovered. Oner shone through in the two following games, picking up two insane KDAs (14/1/6 on Pantheon, 10/1/7 on Sylas), completely dominating the opponents on the map. T1 was much more decisive in the early skirmishes and executed the teamfights in a clean fashion, something DK always struggled with throughout the season. In game 4, BeryL pulled out a Rammus support, which caught people’s attention. The experiment, however, didn’t work as intended: a 0/9/5 to end his LCK season isn’t ideal.

𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

T1이 5년 연속 월즈 진출에 성공합니다.
더 높은 곳에서 대회를 시작할 수 있도록, 남은 경기들에 모두 최선을 다하겠습니다. 항상 응원해 주시는 팬 여러분께 감사드립니다.

We qualified for Worlds for the fifth time.
We will continue to do… pic.twitter.com/3CPXdqxdJn

— T1 LoL (@T1LoL) September 18, 2025

T1 will now fight Gen.G to decide who goes to the Swiss stage

Even though T1 secured Worlds, the road has just begun. Faker and his team will have to fight Gen.G to determine which of the two squads locks the Swiss stage, with the other having to first go through the play-in stage and fight the LPL’s #4 seed. Losing in play-ins would mean ending their Worlds run abruptly, which would be shocking for either of the two, so getting a top-three finish is crucial for both squads. The two Korean powerhouses will face off this Sunday at 08:00 CET, the day after KT and HLE battle in the upper bracket final.

For DK, they will now have some time before they take part in their own cross-regional competition, the newly announced Asian Invitational (ASI), which features the best non-Worlds qualified teams from the LCK, LPL, and LCP. The tournament will kick off on October 6 and end on October 12, right before the start of Worlds.