Gen.G vs BLG: How Worlds 2026's Finalists Got to Brooklyn
Gen.G have not lost a series all tournament. Bilibili Gaming knocked out three LCK teams, including T1. Here is how the Worlds 2026 final was set, and the history between the two teams.
Three years ago, Bilibili Gaming ended Gen.G's Worlds in a five-game quarterfinal. Two years ago, Gen.G beat BLG in an MSI final. On Saturday, November 14, the two teams meet again, this time for the Summoner's Cup.
The semifinals in Allen, Texas, settled the matchup. Gen.G swept Invictus Gaming 3-0, and on Sunday, November 8, Bilibili Gaming beat T1 3-1, ending the three-time defending champions' hopes of a fourth straight title. The final is at Barclays Center in Brooklyn at 14:00 EST (19:00 UTC). Here is how both teams got there.
The Swiss stage: perfect Gen.G, nervous BLG
Worlds 2026 began with a Play-In in Los Angeles, where France's Karmine Corp beat MVK Esports 3-0 to join 15 other teams in the Swiss stage. In that format, teams play a mix of best-of-one and best-of-three matches against opponents with the same record, advancing at three wins and going home at three losses.
Gen.G and Dplus KIA were the only teams to go 3-0. BLG took the long way. It reached the final round at 2-2 and had to beat Hanwha Life Esports, the MSI champions, in a winner-goes-through series. BLG won 2-0, with Peng "Xun" Li-Xun stealing a dragon in Game 1, and took the eighth and last place in the knockouts. HLE finished 2-3, an early exit for a reigning MSI champion.
The other teams to make the quarterfinals were T1, Top Esports, Invictus Gaming, Karmine Corp and North America's LYON.
The knockouts
All four quarterfinals were best-of-fives under Fearless Draft:
- November 3: Invictus Gaming 3-1 Top Esports
- November 4: Gen.G 3-0 LYON
- November 5: Bilibili Gaming 3-0 Dplus KIA
- November 6: T1 3-1 Karmine Corp
BLG's win over Dplus KIA was ruthless: it took 14 of the 15 dragons in the series and handed DK its first losses of the tournament.
Gen.G's 3-0 over IG continued a tournament without a single lost series. In Game 3, Gen.G won a big fight at the dragon pit to deny IG the Mountain Soul and then closed the game out with Baron. Jungler Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu was series MVP.
The other semifinal was a rematch of the 2024 final, which T1 won 3-2 in London. This time BLG took Game 1 behind Ding "knight" Zhuo's 8/0/9 Orianna. T1 levelled the series as Faker went 4/0/13 on Syndra and Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun stole a Baron on Lee Sin. BLG then won the next two games, with Park "Viper" Do-hyeon going 7/1/8 on Ezreal in Game 3 and top laner Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin, the series MVP, going 7/1/7 on Renekton in Game 4.
Gen.G: nine years since the last final
Gen.G is the organisation that bought Samsung's esports division in 2017, the year Samsung Galaxy swept SKT in Beijing. It has not been back to a Worlds final since. In four of its previous five appearances it went out in the semifinals, despite winning the LCK title six times and MSI in 2024 and 2025.
This roster, Kiin, Canyon, Chovy, Ruler and Duro, is the same five that started 2025, and it won both the LCK Cup and the LCK season in 2026. For Chovy, who had never played in a Worlds final, this is his first, at the eighth attempt; it is also the first for Kiin and Duro. Canyon won Worlds with DAMWON in 2020 and lost the 2021 final; Ruler won it with Samsung Galaxy in 2017 and was the MVP of that final.
BLG: the team that beats Korea
Bilibili Gaming's 2026 has been about one thing: beating LCK teams. It won First Stand in March, its first international title, reached the MSI final and lost 2-3 to Hanwha Life, and at Worlds it has now eliminated HLE, Dplus KIA and T1. If it beats Gen.G, it will be the fourth LCK team it has knocked out in one tournament.
Knight and Bin played in the 2024 final against T1. Viper last reached a Worlds final in 2021, when he won it with EDward Gaming. A BLG win would be the organisation's first world title and the LPL's first since 2021.
What's at stake
The winner takes $1 million from the $5 million base prize pool and a place in history: either Chovy's first world title, or China's first since EDG. For the venue, schedule and ceremony details, see our history of every Worlds champion, and for the Korean season that sent Gen.G here, our LCK 2026 season review.