Worlds 2026 Swiss Round 4, day one: T1 sweep Movistar KOI and Invictus Gaming beat LYON 2–1 to qualify at 3–1 — Thursday brings CFO vs KC and BLG vs TES from 20:00 UTC

How day five went

Round 4 of the Worlds 2026 Swiss stage started on Wednesday 28 October with the two best-of-threes between 2–1 teams, each with a quarter-final place on the line, and both went to the favourites: T1 beat Movistar KOI 2–0 and Invictus Gaming beat LYON 2–1. T1 are in the Worlds quarter-finals for the sixth year running; IG are the first LPL team through and back in the knockout stage for the first time in seven years. Movistar KOI and LYON drop to 2–2 and get one more best-of-three on 31 October.

The two results

• T1 2–0 Movistar KOI (series over at 21:38 UTC): game one went close to 40 minutes at 20–10 in kills and was decided by a dragon fight in which Doran's Ambessa caught Supa; game two ended at 25:39 (22–9) after Keria's Karma roamed mid for first blood on jojopyun, Oner's Jarvan IV stole a dragon and T1 built a lead of more than 10,000 gold (Strafe, Hotspawn — which also notes Myrwn's Ornn into Gwen as a losing matchup in game two).
• Invictus Gaming 2–1 LYON (series over at 00:14 UTC on 29 October): IG took game one in 28 minutes (19–4) with a Rookie quadra kill; LYON levelled in game two (38 minutes, 18–8) after early picks, a gold lead near 10,000 and Dhokla's solo kill on TheShy; in the 23-minute decider (7–5) IG traded kills for objectives, used the Rift Herald to open LYON's base, held the front with Wei's Trundle and closed with a JiaQi triple kill into an ace — JiaQi's Caitlyn, paired with Meiko's Lux, finished 5/1/2 (GosuGamers, Hotspawn).

Where the Swiss stage stands

• Through to the quarter-finals: Dplus KIA (3–0), Gen.G (3–0), T1 (3–1), Invictus Gaming (3–1).
• Playing for a place on Thursday: Bilibili Gaming vs Top Esports (both 2–1); the winner goes through, the loser drops to 2–2.
• At 2–2 and into Round 5 on 31 October: Movistar KOI and LYON, joined by Thursday's BLG–TES loser and the winners of the three elimination series.
• Elimination series (1–2): CTBC Flying Oyster vs Karmine Corp on Thursday; Team Liquid vs LOS and Hanwha Life vs G2 on Friday.
• Out at 0–3: Team Secret Whales, Anyone's Legend.

Thursday and Friday

Riot's schedule for day six (posted at 01:30 UTC on 29 October) keeps the late Round 4 slots: CTBC Flying Oyster vs Karmine Corp at 20:00 UTC (1 pm PT, 9 pm CET), then Bilibili Gaming vs Top Esports at 23:00 UTC (4 pm PT, midnight CET). Friday follows the same pattern with Team Liquid vs LOS at 20:00 UTC and Hanwha Life vs G2 at 23:00 UTC. Round 5 on Saturday 31 October fills the last three quarter-final places and the knockout stage starts on 3 November.

What it means for your climb

• Nothing moves on the ranked ladder because of a Worlds result; the pro picks you are seeing (Ambessa, Karma, Jarvan IV, Trundle, Caitlyn–Lux) are played on the 26.20 Worlds patch, while your games run 26.21 and 26.22 lands on 4 November.
• Round 4 series start at 20:00 UTC, so EU prime-time queues are less thinned out than during Rounds 1–3; expect the dip later in the evening.
• If you want a pro bot lane that travels to solo queue, the Caitlyn–Lux pairing that carried IG's decider is a safe one: range, long poke windows and a lane that scales.
• Our Worlds coverage is one item per match day; the Round 3 day-two item carries the full Round 4 draw.

What we are watching

Thursday's two series — BLG vs TES sends one LPL team through at 3–1 and the other into Round 5, and CFO vs KC ends someone's Worlds — then Friday's HLE–G2 and TL–LOS, the Round 5 pairings Riot draws after Friday, and, away from Worlds, Riot's 26.22 notes, expected around 3 November.