Four games, four wins for Korea. Four games, four losses for China. That's how the first day of the Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage ended, in Allen, Texas, and the line fits in a post on X without any effort. It has one flaw, though: of the LPL's four losses, only two came against Korean teams. The other two came from Europe. ## Losing to the LCK is news, losing to the LEC is a question Gen.G dispatched IG in 26 minutes. Hanwha needed 24 to deal with TES. Two short, clean games, the kind where the result is written long before the clock reaches thirty. It hurts, of course. But these were Korean opponents, the teams the LPL usually meets in World Championship finals, and losing like that is part of the business. What made the day truly ugly was everything else. Bilibili Gaming, which tends to perform well in international events, lost to MobyStar Coei, described as an underdog from the LEC, in a showing Sports Chosun calls lackluster. And AL, the last Chinese team to play, fell to Karmine Corp, the LEC's third seed and a team that had barely made it into the Swiss Stage. It is the first time all four LPL teams have lost in the opening round. I think the distinction matters more than the 0-4 itself. Losing to the best team of the rival region is a result. Losing to the teams at the bottom is a question, and the question is whether the LPL's average level has dropped or whether four different teams simply had a bad day at the same time. Four one-game samples answer nothing. But they stay on the table. ## The LCK's 4-0 has a game that almost didn't exist Diplus GIA trailed clearly until the middle of the game against G2, the strongest team in the LEC and, according to the same source, the one that had already blocked Korean teams in international tournaments. They turned it around late, with better composure than G2 in the closing stages. Without that comeback, the headline would be different: LCK 3-1, and a much less triumphant conversation about dominance. T1 closed the Korean day with a win over LOS from CBLOL, and all four teams ended with one win each. There's also a curious detail on the European side. G2 lost, but the LEC finished the day with two wins, both from teams nobody had at the top of the list. The LCS, through Lion, and the LCP, with CTBC Flying Oysters, added one each. Of the eight wins on the day, Korea took four, Europe two, and China, which is usually half the conversation around this tournament, took zero. ## What the draw already guarantees The second round pairs teams with the same record, which is how the Swiss format works. Gen.G plays Hanwha and T1 plays Diplus GIA, which means two Korean teams will be 2-0 and two will be 1-1, and that is certain before anyone presses play. On the Chinese side, TES faces AL, Bilibili Gaming draws Team Liquid from the LCS, and IG plays Secret Wealth from the LCP. All of them are looking for a first win. If the format follows recent editions, with three wins to advance and three losses to go home, each of them has already spent one life. Games start at 2:00 a.m. on October 25 in Korea, which is 6:00 p.m. in Lisbon and Luanda and 2:00 p.m. in Brasília, still on the 24th. In the meantime, the LPL has at least one win guaranteed in round two, because TES and AL can't both lose. It isn't much, but it is the only certainty the draw gave them.