Another T1 vs Gen.G finals? Community Reacts to Worlds 2025 Knockout Stage Draw

The final round of Worlds 2025 Swiss stage has come to its conclusion. With T1, TOP Esports, and CTBC Flying Oyster securing the final three spots in the Knockout stage, the top 8 teams of the tournament have been finalized.

As we head towards the Worlds 2025 Knockout stage, legendary LPL top laner Liu “Zz1tai” Zhi-Hao took the stage to finalize the top 8 matchups. Here’s how the community reacted to the bracket.

The team kill streak continues – Gen.G vs Hanwha Life Esports

If it was the LPL’s turn to see the team kill in Round 5 of the Swiss stage, then it was LCK’s turn in the quarterfinals. While the draw was especially devastating for Hanwha Life Esports fans, as the Jungler for the team, Han “Peanut” Wang-ho, who recently announced that this will be his final run as a professional player due to his mandatory military service, faces the tournament favorites, Gen.G.

HongQ finally gets his wish – KT Rolster vs CTBC Flying Oyster

As the LCP community celebrated a historical achievement of having one of their teams in the Worlds 2025 Knockout stage for the first time in over 10 years, they were especially happy for their mid laner, Tsai “HongQ” Ming-Hong, as he got to fulfill his wish of playing against his idol. KT’s Gwak “Bdd” Bo-seong.

HongQ so Happy🥰Idol meeting Idol dream come true! Thank you KT and Bdd, best wishes on the Rift🗺️#CFOWIN pic.twitter.com/jhomT8fMZM

— CTBC Flying Oyster(CFO) (@CTBC_cfo) October 12, 2025

Throughout the course of Worlds 2025, HongQ, and even his head coach, Wong “Chawy” Xing-Lei, explicitly stated that they hope to face KT, especially Bdd, in this tournament. The idolization was clearly evident from the young mid laner, but his head coach believes that the experience will help HongQ grow immensely as a player. With all the hype behind the team (and some saying to ‘never believe in KT’), CFO has a real chance to create history once again.

Another T1 vs Gen.G grand finals? – T1 vs Anyone’s Legend

In contrast to the HLE fans, the T1 fandom seemed generally satisfied with their team’s trajectory to tournament victory, as their road to the Grand Finals does not involve any of the other LCK teams. Due to such, some are even saying the script has been written for another T1 vs Gen.G finals.

As to whether or not T1 will make the run remains to be seen, but if there’s one team that could, then it’s definitely the defending world champions. However, LPL fans remain hopeful that the home-ground buff would be enough to secure a momentous win and become the first LPL team to beat T1 in a Best of 5 series on the Worlds stage.