T1 Beat Karmine Corp 3-1 to Reach Sixth Straight Worlds Semifinal, Set Up BLG Clash

Peyz powers T1 into the final four

T1 reached the League of Legends World Championship semifinals for a sixth consecutive year after beating Karmine Corp 3-1 in Allen, Texas, with Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan recording 35 kills, three deaths and 19 assists across the four games.

The defending champions won the quarterfinal at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center on November 7, 2026, Korean time. Their next opponent is China's Bilibili Gaming, with the semifinal scheduled for November 9 at 7 a.m. Korean time at the same venue.

Peyz received the player of the match award after delivering much of T1's attacking power. In the deciding fourth game, his Miss Fortune finished with 11 kills, no deaths and five assists, while support player Ryu "Keria" Min-seok contributed 14 assists without dying on Neeko.

Karmine Corp, known as KC, threatened to extend the contest after winning a tense third game through control of the map's biggest neutral monsters. T1 answered with a decisive fight near the dragon area in game four, eliminating all five KC players before closing the series in about 35 minutes.

The result completed the semifinal lineup of T1, BLG, Invictus Gaming and Gen.G. T1 and KC had both entered Worlds as the third seeds from their respective leagues, South Korea's LCK and Europe's LEC. Their quarterfinal was also a reunion, coming roughly four months after their EWC 2026 playoff semifinal meeting in Paris in July.

How the series unfolded

T1 needed three victories in the series, which allowed a maximum of five games. KC's resistance made the route uneven: an early lead in the opening game slipped away, a difficult second game put the French organisation on the brink, and a carefully managed third game kept its tournament alive.

The main turning points came at different stages of each game:

• Game one: KC secured the first kill, but T1 took three unanswered kills around 25 minutes, claimed Baron Nashor and won in about 35 minutes.
• Game two: T1 collected three kills during an opening clash around three minutes and finished the game in 29 minutes.
• Game three: The first kill arrived around 19 minutes. KC later secured Baron and Elder Dragon before destroying T1's base.
• Game four: KC again took the first kill, but T1 eliminated the entire opposing team around 21 to 22 minutes and completed the series in about 35 minutes.

The sequence showed why the first kill alone gave an incomplete picture of either team's position. KC found early opportunities against T1's top lane, while T1 repeatedly built advantages elsewhere and brought its strongest damage dealers into the decisive fights.

Game one turns on a jungle ambush

KC top laner Kim "Canna" Chang-dong opened the series by killing Choi "Doran" Hyeon-jun without help from a teammate. Canna's Rumble got the better of Doran's Ornn, giving KC an early advantage in that lane. T1 jungler Mun "Oner" Hyeon-jun subsequently finished off Canna, although the opening exchange had already helped KC's top laner develop.

T1 responded through fights around dragon. Oner's Jarvan IV initiated an engagement around 15 minutes, and Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok's Viktor collected kills against Martin "Yike" Sundelin, Kang "yehu" Ye-hu and Canna. KC continued to fight back and collected the first two dragon buffs, keeping the game competitive.

The decisive opening came around 25 minutes in the upper part of KC's jungle, the area between lanes where neutral monsters live. T1 attacked while KC's players were separated. Peyz took two kills, and Oner caught the retreating Yike to complete a three kill exchange without a T1 death.

T1 then secured Baron Nashor. Defeating Baron grants a temporary buff that strengthens nearby allied minions, making it easier to push toward enemy towers and the base. With that help, T1 advanced through the middle lane and stretched its gold advantage beyond 10,000.

Peyz's Yunara, supported by Keria's Lulu, became the main threat. He finished the opener with 11 kills, one death and six assists. Yike's Lee Sin managed to catch him once, but T1 regrouped and destroyed the Nexus, the central structure whose destruction ends a game.

Three early kills put T1 in control

T1's second victory began with a much earlier breakthrough. Around three minutes, the teams collided near the river during a contest involving the scuttle crab, a neutral creature that teams use for resources and vision.

Yike entered with both red and blue buffs, temporary benefits obtained from jungle monsters. Faker arrived and helped turn the fight in T1's favour. T1 killed Yike, KC bottom laner Caliste "Caliste" Henry-Hennebert and support Alan "Busio" Cwalina, collecting three kills before the game had properly settled.

T1 kept attacking through the bottom lane and jungle. Those kills widened the gold gap, allowing its players to buy stronger equipment sooner. Control of dragons and Void Grubs, neutral monsters that help teams pressure structures, gave T1 more ways to turn that economic lead into progress across the map.

T1 also secured its fourth dragon before ending the game at 29 minutes. KC now faced a straightforward requirement: win three games in succession or leave the championship. T1 needed only one more victory.

KC slows the pace and fights back

KC changed the rhythm in game three, avoiding frequent direct confrontations and allowing the game to develop. The first kill did not arrive until around 19 minutes, when Caliste's Ashe struck Doran with an Enchanted Crystal Arrow fired through the middle lane. Yike and yehu followed up to finish the kill.

Peyz and Keria quickly answered by killing Canna. Around 30 minutes, the teams had only two kills each, a sharp contrast with the early action of game two. Peyz's Zeri remained dangerous, but KC's attention to neutral objectives gave it another route to victory.

KC secured the fourth dragon it needed for Ocean Soul, a lasting team benefit that helps restore health during combat. It also won the contest for Baron around 34 minutes, then claimed Elder Dragon after breaking through T1's attempts to interfere.

Elder Dragon offers a powerful temporary combat advantage, including an effect that finishes off enemies whose health falls low enough. KC used that opening to kill Doran and T1's bottom lane pair, leaving only Faker and Oner to defend the base.

Faker and Oner tried to hold near the Nexus towers, but yehu's Anivia and Canna helped KC sustain its advance. KC destroyed the Nexus and reduced the series deficit to 2-1, forcing T1 to prepare for another game.

Peyz and Keria shut down the comeback

KC again struck first in game four. Around six minutes, Canna attacked Doran near his tower with help from Yike and secured the opening kill. T1, however, was building a different advantage at the bottom of the map.

Peyz's Miss Fortune and Keria's Neeko gained control of their lane against KC's Xayah and Rakan. They created a gap in minion kills, which supply gold, and used that pressure to support T1's movements toward dragon.

The defining fight came around 21 to 22 minutes. Immediately after T1 secured a dragon, Peyz killed Yike, yehu and Busio for a triple kill. Faker and Doran caught the remaining KC players, completing an ace, the term for eliminating all five members of the opposing team.

T1 converted the fight into further control, including Baron. Keria later helped create another favourable engagement in a narrow passage around 32 minutes, and T1 secured Baron again before advancing into KC's base.

Peyz finished with approximately 31,700 damage dealt to enemy champions, the highest total of any player in the game. His 11 kills accounted for another decisive attacking performance, while Keria's 14 assists reflected how often the support player helped complete T1's eliminations. Neither player died as T1 closed the game and series.

The numbers behind T1's victory

Peyz's totals across the quarterfinal amounted to 18 combined kills and assists for every death: 35 kills plus 19 assists, divided by three deaths. That calculation captures both his attacking output and how rarely KC managed to remove him from play.

His opening and closing games supplied 22 of his 35 kills, or nearly 63% of his series total. T1 repeatedly used those performances to turn successful fights into Baron control and pressure on KC's base.

Keria's role was closely connected to that output. Lulu supported Peyz's Yunara in game one, while Neeko helped shape the fourth game's engagements and restrict KC's attempts to reach T1's damage dealers. The pair gave T1 a dependable source of pressure even when KC found kills against Doran.

KC's strongest response came through objectives rather than a large early kill lead. Its third game victory showed how Baron, dragon rewards and a timely attack on the base could overturn a contest in which neither side had collected many kills. That experience gives T1 a concrete issue to address before facing another opponent with strong dragon control.

Faker credits preparation and teamwork

Faker, T1's mid laner, attributed the quarterfinal victory to the team's coordination during smaller fights and its ability to carry out its preparation. Speaking after the match, he described how those exchanges had developed:

For today's match, our team synergy during skirmishes was exceptional, and things went smoothly just as we had planned, which led to our victory.

His explanation matched the key moments of the series. T1's first victory accelerated when it caught KC's separated players, while the fourth turned when the team combined dragon control with a complete wipeout of its opponent.

Faker also said he had enjoyed the closely contested fighting and wanted another exciting match in the semifinal. Away from tournament games, he said he was playing on the North American ranked server under the name "Hide on bush," trying different champions and finding Rengar difficult to handle.

BLG brings a dragon threat of its own

BLG reached the semifinal by sweeping Dplus KIA 3-0. Across those three games, it secured 14 dragons and conceded just one, taking 14 of the 15 dragons claimed by either team. That is about 93%, a striking measure of its control over an area that had already caused T1 trouble against KC.

Dragons offer benefits that grow in importance as a game develops. Reaching four elemental dragons grants a Dragon Soul, while the later Elder Dragon can give a team the power to win a decisive fight. KC's third game provided T1 with a recent example of how those rewards can lead directly to defeat.

Faker described BLG as a team capable of winning the championship and acknowledged its strong results against Korean opposition at the tournament. He also offered a confident assessment of its next assignment:

However, it's unfortunate for them that they have to face us in the semifinals,

T1 enters the November 9 meeting with a sixth consecutive semifinal appearance secured and a bottom lane coming off a productive quarterfinal. BLG arrives after a clean sweep built around commanding objective control. The winner will take a place in the Worlds final.

Key Points

• T1 defeated Karmine Corp 3-1 in the Worlds quarterfinal in Allen, Texas.
• The defending champions reached the semifinals for a sixth consecutive year.
• Peyz recorded 35 kills, three deaths and 19 assists across the series.
• KC won game three after securing major objectives, including Baron and Elder Dragon.
• Peyz and Keria both finished the deciding fourth game without dying.
• T1 faces BLG on November 9 at 7 a.m. Korean time, with a place in the final at stake.
• BLG swept Dplus KIA 3-0 and secured 14 dragons while conceding one.