Four teams, six best-of-five series, one Swiss spot. Karmine Corp took it with a 9-2 record in maps, and their first Worlds now opens against Anyone's Legend.
Four days ago, Karmine Corp were one map away from a very short first Worlds. Cloud9 Kia led them 2-1 in the opening series and had already won a game 20-1 in kills. KC won the next two maps, then swept MVK Esports twice, and finished the Play-In with nine maps won and two lost. They are the sixteenth and final team in the Swiss Stage, and their first opponent there is Anyone's Legend.
How the Play-In played out
The Play-In was a four-team double-elimination bracket, and every series was a best-of-five.
- October 15, opening match: Karmine Corp 3-2 Cloud9 Kia. C9 took Games 1 and 3, KC took Games 2, 4 and 5.
- October 15, opening match: MVK Esports 3-0 FURIA. The only sweep of the first day.
- October 16, winners' match: Karmine Corp 3-0 MVK Esports. KC moved straight to the final.
- October 16, elimination match: FURIA 3-1 Cloud9 Kia. C9 won Game 1, FURIA won the next three. Cloud9 Kia were out.
- October 17, lower bracket final: MVK Esports 3-1 FURIA. FURIA took Game 3, MVK closed it in Game 4. FURIA were out.
- October 18, Play-In final: Karmine Corp 3-0 MVK Esports. KC qualified for the Swiss Stage.
Final order: Karmine Corp first, MVK Esports second, FURIA third, Cloud9 Kia fourth. In maps, KC went 9-2, MVK 6-7, FURIA 4-7 and C9 3-6.
Karmine Corp: from 1-20 to 9-2
This is the first World Championship in Karmine Corp's history, and it started badly. In Game 1 against Cloud9 Kia, KC scored one kill to C9's twenty, and Caliste finished the map 0/6/1 on Miss Fortune.
KC took Game 2 despite losing the kill count 14-16, but C9 answered with a 22-5 win in Game 3 for a 2-1 lead. Then the series turned. Caliste played Xayah in Game 4 and went 11/1/3 in a 15-6 win. In Game 5, kyeahoo's Ahri went 6/1/8 and KC won the decider 17-8.
After that, MVK never found a map. KC beat them 3-0 in the winners' match and 3-0 again in the final, six maps to none across the two series. The final opened 13-2 in kills in KC's favour and the last map ended 25-12. In Games 1 and 3 of the final, Caliste went 6/1/1 on Zeri and 9/1/3 on Ezreal, 15/2/4 combined by our count. kyeahoo went 4/0/11 on Viktor in Game 3, and according to RiftDaily he was named Player of the Series.
KC came in as the LEC's third seed, behind G2 Esports and Movistar KOI, who were seeded straight into the Swiss Stage. Now all three LEC teams will be there.
MVK Esports: two wins over FURIA, two walls against KC
MVK arrived as the third seed from the LCP, the Vietnamese organisation that, according to Inven Global, climbed from seventh to third in its league this year. They opened with the only sweep of day one, 3-0 over FURIA.
Against KC, MVK could not get a map in either series. In the winners' match they changed their jungle, with SanSan coming in for Gury in Games 2 and 3. Inven Global reports that in Game 3 MVK stole Baron and KC still finished the game with a backdoor.
The lower bracket final against FURIA showed MVK at their best. They won Games 1 and 2 by 21-8 and 18-7, lost Game 3, and closed Game 4 21-8 in just over 28 minutes. Harky went 9/0/4 on Jhin in Game 2, and Kratos 8/1/8 on Zaahen in Game 1, with Gury adding 17 assists on Jarvan IV. All six of MVK's map wins came against FURIA. Both of their series losses came against KC.
FURIA vs Cloud9 Kia: the rivalry goes Brazil's way again
FURIA beat Cloud9 Kia in the final of the first Americas Cup in March. The two met again in the elimination match on October 16, with a Worlds exit on the line.
C9 took Game 1 19-10. FURIA then won three straight: 12-9, 14-6 and 16-7. Ayu finished the series 18/6/19 and went 7/0/5 on Miss Fortune in the game that ended C9's Worlds. JoJo went 1/0/13 on Karma in Game 3, while Blaber finished the series 15/14/14 for C9.
For FURIA it meant more. They came into Worlds without a map win at a global event in 2026, 0-9 across MSI and the Esports World Cup. They leave with four. The biggest individual kill game of the Play-In also belongs to them: Ayu's 12/0/3 Miss Fortune in Game 3 of the lower bracket final, a 21-8 win that kept their tournament alive for one more map.
Numbers from the Play-In
Seventeen maps, all on patch 16.20. A few single-map facts from our match records:
- Biggest kill gap on one map: Cloud9 Kia 20-1 over Karmine Corp in Game 1 of the opening series. KC still won the series.
- Most kills by one player on one map: Ayu, 12/0/3 on Miss Fortune, Game 3 of FURIA vs MVK on October 17.
- Next best: Caliste, 11/1/3 on Xayah in Game 4 against C9, and Loki, 11/0/3 on Locke in Game 1 of the same series.
- Big assist game: Gury, 2/1/17 on Jarvan IV in Game 1 of the lower bracket final.
- More deathless games: Busio 0/0/10 on Yuumi (final, Game 1), kyeahoo 4/0/11 on Viktor (final, Game 3), Blaber 7/0/14 on Jarvan IV (opening, Game 3), Harky 9/0/4 on Jhin (lower bracket final, Game 2).
What's next: KC vs AL and the Swiss Stage
The Swiss Stage starts on October 23 at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas. Sixteen teams, three wins to advance, three losses to go home, and Round 1 is best-of-one.
Karmine Corp open against Anyone's Legend. They have met once this year: in the Esports World Cup quarterfinal on July 17, KC beat AL 2-0, 18-11 and 12-4 in kills, and sent them home. A single game is a different test from a series, and AL arrive as one of the LPL's four seeds. Teams do not face the same opponent twice in the Swiss Stage, so this is the only meeting the format allows before the knockouts.
The full Round 1 draw:
- Gen.G vs Invictus Gaming
- Team Liquid Alienware vs CTBC Flying Oyster
- Anyone's Legend vs Karmine Corp
- G2 Esports vs Dplus KIA
- Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports
- LOS vs T1
- Team Secret Whales vs LYON
- Bilibili Gaming vs Movistar KOI
Follow Worlds with us
Karmine Corp needed four days and eleven maps to reach the main stage. The road to the November 14 final at the Barclays Center starts on October 23.
Follow Worlds 2026 with us at esportsight.com/worlds-26: every map, every champion, every player, free. Verified. Every match.