Worlds 2026 Swiss stage schedule: Round 1 on 23 October from 17:00 UTC — Gen.G vs IG first, Karmine Corp at 20:00, T1 vs LOS at 23:00

The Round 1 running order

Riot posted the Round 1 schedule on the evening of 19 October, a day after the draw. All eight matches are best-of-ones on Friday 23 October, one slot per hour from 17:00 UTC — 10 am in Los Angeles, 7 pm in Paris and Berlin, 2 am on Saturday in Seoul.

• 17:00 UTC — Gen.G vs Invictus Gaming
• 18:00 UTC — Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports
• 19:00 UTC — Bilibili Gaming vs Movistar KOI
• 20:00 UTC — Anyone's Legend vs Karmine Corp
• 21:00 UTC — G2 Esports vs Dplus KIA
• 22:00 UTC — Team Liquid vs CTBC Flying Oyster
• 23:00 UTC — LOS vs T1
• 00:00 UTC (24 October) — Team Secret Whales vs LYON

Read the hours as scheduled starts rather than exact ones. One game plus the analyst desk and the break between series does not always fit into sixty minutes, so the late matches — LOS vs T1 and Team Secret Whales vs LYON — can begin later than listed. lolesports.com carries the same eight slots converted to your time zone.

Riot's format correction

The bracket graphic LoL Esports posted after the draw marked the Round 3 series lengths wrongly, and the account corrected it early on 19 October: teams on 2–0 play a best-of-three for a knockout place, teams on 0–2 play a best-of-three to stay in, and the 1–1 matches are best-of-ones. The official schedule confirms the rest of the shape — Rounds 1 and 2 are all best-of-ones, Rounds 4 and 5 all best-of-threes.

The rest of the Swiss stage

Round 2 follows on Saturday 24 October with eight more best-of-ones from 17:00 UTC, paired by Round 1 record. Round 3 is split over Sunday 25 and Monday 26 October from 17:00 UTC, with two best-of-ones and two best-of-threes a day. Round 4 runs from Wednesday 28 to Friday 30 October with two best-of-threes a day from 20:00 UTC, and Round 5 closes the stage on Saturday 31 October with three best-of-threes from 17:00 UTC. The eight qualifiers go into the quarterfinals from 3 to 6 November, the semifinals are on 7 and 8 November and the final is on 14 November in Brooklyn. Europe leaves summer time on 25 October, so a 17:00 UTC start is 7 pm CEST in Rounds 1 and 2 and 6 pm CET from Round 3 onwards.

What it means for your climb

• Nothing moves on the ladder: Worlds stays on patch 26.20, and ranked gets 26.21 on Wednesday 21 October, two days before Round 1, so the stage meta sits one patch behind your games.
• Champions Queue runs nightly from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC through the Swiss stage, so the pro solo-queue streams are back during the week.
• Swiss-stage Pick'Em picks lock on 23 October.
• The Play-In results, the pools and the full Round 1 draw are in our 18 October item; we will add the Round 1 results here on the night of 23 October.

What we are watching

The Round 1 results and the Round 2 pairings on 23 and 24 October, Phroxzon's 26.21 rundown, and the 26.21 patch notes due on 21 October.