BiliBili Gaming faces Gen.G in League of Legends Worlds final in New York

China’s BiliBili Gaming and South Korea’s Gen.G Esports will play for the 2026 world championship in the League of Legends Worlds Grand Finals in New York on November 14, 2026, Shacknews reports.

Shacknews lists the broadcast start at 8 a.m. PT and 11 a.m. ET on November 14, 2026. Stevivor’s listing gives 2 p.m. Eastern on November 14, 2026, equal to 4 a.m. KST the next day, November 15, and 6am AEDT for viewers in Australia. Shacknews says the final airs on the Riot Games Twitch channel, The LoL Esports YouTube, and the LoL Esports website.

Shacknews lists Barclay Center as the venue in New York City, while Stevivor and estnn.com call it Barclays Center, located in Brooklyn. Shacknews says Riot Games, fans, and the top teams will descend on the arena to crown the global champion. The overall prize pool is $5,000,000, with first place receiving $1 million and second place $800,000, Shacknews states. Shacknews says most payouts for teams already placed have been settled, so the final decides first and second place.

T1 and Invictus Gaming took 3rd-4th and $400,000 each, and Dplus, Karmine Corp, LYON, and Top Esports finished 5th-8th for $300,000 apiece. Hanwha Life Esports, LOS, and Movistar KOI finished 9th through 11th and earned $175,000 apiece; CTBC Flying Oyster, G2 Esports, and Team Liquid took 12th through 14th at $125,000 each. Anyone’s Legends and Secret Whales placed 15th-16th for $90,000 apiece, MVK Esports took 17th at $50,000, FURIA was 18th for $40,000, and Cloud9 finished 19th at $30,000.

Both teams qualified through the Swiss Stage. Gen.G’s only loss in its 2026 Worlds run was a single game to Mexican squad LYON, then a 3-0 sweep of LYON in the knockout opener and another 3-0 over Invictus Gaming, per Shacknews and Stevivor.

BiliBili Gaming’s route was scrappier: it lost to Spain’s Movistar KOI and then fell 1-2 to fellow Chinese squad Top Esports, Shacknews says. BLG later took down Hanwha Life Esports 2-0 in Swiss round five, swept Dplus KIA by 3-0 in the quarterfinals, and ended T1’s run 3-1 in the semifinal on November 8, 2026, Stevivor and estnn.com report. Stevivor says Luo “ON” Wenjun’s Seraphine caught several T1 players with Encore during a dragon fight, and BLG closed the series from there.

Stevivor and estnn.com say Gen.G has never played a Worlds final under its own name, with the organisation’s last final coming in 2017 when Samsung Galaxy won the title. Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk was the AD carry on that Samsung Galaxy roster, Stevivor states.

Stevivor reports that Chovy, Kiin, and Duro are playing in their first Worlds finals, with eight Worlds appearances behind Chovy. Chovy told Inven Global after the Invictus Gaming series that a final after eight years might never come again, Stevivor adds.

Stevivor says a Gen.G win would hand the LCK a fifth straight title and its 11th overall, while a BiliBili Gaming win would secure the organisation’s first Cup and the LPL’s first championship since Edward Gaming won in 2021. estnn.com says fifteen World Championships have been staged since 2011, with T1 owning six; LCK teams won ten of the fifteen finals, with a five-year run from 2013 to 2017, and no other team has matched T1’s three straight championships.

LPL teams won three total — Invictus Gaming in 2018, FunPlus Phoenix in 2019, and Edward Gaming in 2021 — while Fnatic won the first championship in 2011 at DreamHack in Sweden and Taipei Assassins took the 2012 title. estnn.com says no North American team has ever reached the final, and Faker played on every T1 title roster, from the 2013 win in Los Angeles through the 3-2 win over KT Rolster at Chengdu in 2025.

estnn.com frames the final as a chance for a new champion under current team names. Stevivor reports Gen.G are the slight favourites after BLG’s tougher path through the Swiss pool.