Hanwha Life Esports needed 23 minutes to dismantle Top Esports in Match 2 of the Swiss Stage at the 2026 League of Legends World Championship, played in the early hours of October 24 Korean time at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas. TES, the LPL’s third seed, never found its footing.
Early pressure and a brief scare
Zeka’s Locke blunted TES’s aggressive plays, which freed Kanavi to hunt the bottom side of the map and remove JackeyLove’s Ezreal. Hanwha Life then picked off 369’s K’Sante, and kills were traded in a dragon teamfight. TES did get a moment. In a mid-lane skirmish between Orianna and Locke, Tian’s Lee Sin jumped in and secured kills on both Locke and Nocturne, handing TES a sizable edge.
It did not last. TES started a fight in front of the Rift Herald, hoping to force a big teamfight, but Hanwha Life’s rotations and ability combinations were exceptionally clean. The Herald fell to the Koreans, and by the 16-minute mark they led by roughly 3,000 gold.
The dragon fight ends it
TES wanted the next dragon badly. Hanwha Life already held two stacks, and TES did take the objective, but the fight that followed went one way. Hanwha Life scored four kills without a reply and stretched the gap to 7,000 gold. A comeback was no longer realistic.
Zeka kept feeding on the lead. A bot lane dive netted him another kill and put his line at 10/1/3 at 19 minutes. From there Hanwha Life took Baron and finished the Nexus at 23 minutes.
What the opening day signals
The result fits a lopsided day for the Korean league. All four LCK seeds won on the opening day and all four LPL teams lost. Gen.G opened against IG, fell behind in an early Voidgrub fight, then smothered them with calm macro play and clean teamfights. BLG, the LPL side best known for fighting LCK teams hard, lost a tight series to MKOI. AL, with Kael and Tarzan, fell to Europe’s KC. Dplus KIA came back against G2 after a rough start by winning a dragon teamfight past the 30-minute mark.
TES arrived with problems of its own. A betting preview published before the match noted that the team was dealing with visa issues and roster trouble, and called it a side with a reputation for faltering at international events. Hanwha Life, by the same preview, had its own habit of overconfidence and misplays but usually found a way back. Against TES it never needed one.
T1 closed the day for the LCK by beating Brazil’s LOS in 24 minutes, one minute longer than Hanwha Life’s rout.
Sources
- An Overwhelming Gap in Power… Hanwha Life Defeats TES in 23 Minutes
- LCK goes 4-0, LPL goes 0-4: Contrasting fortunes on Day 1
- Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports Betting Tips – Hanwha Life Esports to Handle Shaky TES at LoL Worlds 2026
Photo: Eunduck (CC BY 4.0)
