My Worlds 2026 predictions

It's Worlds time again! The League of Legends World Championship 2026 runs from October 15 to November 14 in the US, with the final at Barclays Center in New York. Like every year, I'm doing the Pick'Ems and the Crystal Ball. This time I went a bit overboard with the research, so I might as well share it.

All my picks are also on my Worlds 2026 Pick Board, where I'll be marking hits and misses as the tournament goes.

The setup

Patch 26.20 is the Worlds patch. It nerfs Cassiopeia, K'Sante, Ashe, Ambessa and Yunara, and buffs Lucian, Swain, Neeko, Kindred and a few others.
Fearless Draft is used in every Bo3 and Bo5. Once a team picks a champion in a series, they can't pick it again in that series. Expect a lot of different champions.
Format: a 4-team Play-In (all Bo5, double elimination), then a 16-team Swiss stage, then 8-team Bo5 knockouts.
Favorites: Gen.G (LCK champion) is the betting favorite at around 33%, followed by HLE (MSI 2026 champion), BLG and T1, the three-time defending champion.

My stats come mostly from gol.gg, plus Worlds history from 2022 to 2025.

Crystal Ball: champions

Question	My pick	Why
Highest presence	Cassiopeia	93% pick-or-ban rate in the 2026 summer playoffs, 90–97% in every region. The 26.20 nerf is small. She'll keep getting banned.
Highest win rate (min 5 games)	Twisted Fate	This one is mostly luck. Past winners were pocket picks with only a few games (Dr. Mundo went 5-0 in 2025). TF went 9-4 in the playoffs.
Most deaths per game	Nautilus	He topped this at both Worlds 2024 and 2025. Engage supports always die a lot.

Crystal Ball: players

Question	My pick	Why
Highest KDA	Chovy	Gen.G is the favorite, and Chovy posted a 7.3 KDA in the LCK playoffs.
Most damage per game	Peyz	He led MSI 2026 in damage per minute, and T1's games run long.
Highest kill participation	Keria	83% in the LCK playoffs, the best of anyone there.
Peyz vs Gumayusi: more kills	Peyz	About 5.8 kills per game this year against Gumayusi's 4.3. Peyz had 175 kills in 21 games at MSI alone.

Crystal Ball: events

Question	My pick	Why
Faker reaches 700 career Worlds kills?	No	He's at 616, so he needs 84. At his 2026 pace that's about 25 games, and T1 can play 26 at most.
Teemo picked at least once?	No	Zero Teemo picks in any major league this year. Sorry, Teemo mains.
Unique champions picked	100–104	Worlds 2025, the first one with Fearless, had 95. This year's Bo5 Play-In adds about 20 more games.
More games before or after 32 minutes?	After	Close to a coin flip. 2025 was exactly 50/50, but the 2026 playoffs ran long.
Any player with 15+ kills in a game?	Yes	MSI 2026 had three of these in 71 games. Peyz alone has done it four times this year.
Any player with 450+ CS in a game?	Yes	It has happened every year since 2022. One long game is enough.
Finals MVP role	Mid	Chovy, Faker or Knight. The patch also nerfs a lot of ADC tools.
Regions in knockouts	4	LCK and LPL, plus G2 for Europe and LYON for North America.
LCS team in knockouts?	Yes	LYON finished 3rd at MSI and swept G2 there. Plus, home crowd.
HLE or T1 places higher?	HLE	HLE is 6-2 in series against T1 this year and won MSI. But T1 at Worlds is a different animal, so this one scares me.
Winner of the shortest game	HLE	They have the fastest average win time of any team at Worlds, and won the shortest game at both MSI and EWC this year.

Play-In bracket

The Play-In has four teams: KC (LEC), Cloud9 (LCS), FURIA (CBLOL) and MVK (LCP). Only one goes on to Swiss.

Upper semis: FURIA over MVK, KC over Cloud9.
Upper final: KC over FURIA.
Lower semi: Cloud9 over MVK.
Lower final: FURIA over Cloud9. This is my riskiest pick. FURIA beat Cloud9 5-0 in games at the Americas Cup this year, but Cloud9 is playing at home.
Final: KC goes to Swiss. They reached the EWC 2026 final and beat T1 on the way.

What's next

The Swiss draw is on October 18, after the Play-In. I'll do my Swiss and knockout picks then. Follow along on the pick board to see how many I get right. Or, more likely, how many I get wrong. 😅