The 2025 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage is about to begin. Both IG and T1 supports recently gave media interviews. Meiko stated: T1 has always been a strong team at Worlds, while IG approaches them as challengers. When asked about IG's chances of beating T1, Meiko frankly said it's fifty-fifty; we have a chance to win, and so does T1.

T1’s support Keria also spoke boldly in an interview: IG has played from playoffs to the play-in stage, and T1 has gathered lots of reference data. As long as we play at our own pace, T1 will definitely win. Keria also hopes to win the World Championship this year and make history with a three-peat. It will be tough for IG to win this match after such a long break and intensive training; their form is uncertain.

Guan Zeyuan’s prediction: T1 3:1 IG

LPL official commentators recently predicted the play-in results. Miller and Guan Zeyuan both believe T1 will defeat IG 3:1. Miller thinks the two teams differ in style and form, with IG’s overall chance around 35%. However, professional player Angel expects a full five-game series, with IG ultimately winning 3:2 to advance to the main event.

Besides score predictions, Da Xiao and Miller also ranked the top 20 players at Worlds. Unsurprisingly, Chovy took first place, followed by Chidi. BLG’s top and mid laners ranked third and fourth respectively. IG had only two players on the list: Gazi at 12th and TheShy at the bottom. Strong teams mostly had players featured, with the entire list dominated by LPL and LCK regions.

LPL players’ poor performance enrages officials

Before Worlds, the Asian Invitational has concluded. The best LPL result was reaching the semifinals, with JDG and NIP eliminated early. The tournament held at home was dominated by the LCK taking the top three spots, which is tough to accept. If the gap in strength is large, only NIP fits that description, but JDG and Weibo are strong teams. Their losses mainly resulted from players collectively underperforming deliberately.

After his break, Xiaohu played a full 35 ranked games, showing good form. But the team’s support and jungle combined played only 5 games, and AD carry and top laner didn’t play any ranked games, clearly showing attitude problems. Recently, streamer Leguo957 revealed that LPL officials are furious about players slacking off in training. Executives sent angry messages in player group chats, criticizing their attitude.

LPL club total investment revealed

LoL blogger Park recently exposed the total investment in LPL teams’ rosters this year. BLG leads with 70-80 million, far ahead in first place, followed by IG and Top Esports, both in the top three. JDG and Weibo’s investments are close to IG and TES, between 40-50 million. LNG and AL have similar investments, both around 15-20 million.

Looking at this, LNG is definitely the biggest loser this year, as they didn’t even make playoffs. JDG and Weibo, the struggling siblings, both invested heavily but missed Worlds. Before the Invitational, their reputations were similar, but after the event, JDG completely collapsed. Their 50 million roster couldn’t even beat Vietnam’s GAM and were even swept. Player values are expected to plummet next year.

Conclusion:

IG’s chances in the BO5 against T1 are indeed slim. The commentators’ predictions seem conservative. If Rookie still performs like in the play-in, T1 will surely dominate. However, IG recently trained in the LCK region, even scrimming with KT, so they should be well prepared with strategies against T1. Hopefully, they can secure the win.

So, what do you think are IG’s chances of winning?

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