Worlds 2026 Swiss Day 1: every match in Eastern Time

The Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage starts on Friday, October 23, and all sixteen teams play that day. Eight best-of-one matches run back to back from 1:00 PM ET at the Credit Union of Texas (CUTX) Event Center in Allen, Texas, just north of Dallas. Gen.G and Invictus Gaming open the day, T1 meet LOS at 7:00 PM, and Team Secret Whales and LYON close it at 8:00 PM.

All times are Eastern Time (ET). New York is on daylight time until November 1, so on October 23 that's EDT, UTC−4, not Eastern Standard Time. Allen is on Central Daylight Time (CDT), an hour behind, for anyone at the venue.

Friday's schedule

1:00 PM ET (12:00 PM CDT): Gen.G vs Invictus Gaming
2:00 PM ET (1:00 PM CDT): Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports
3:00 PM ET (2:00 PM CDT): Bilibili Gaming vs Movistar KOI
4:00 PM ET (3:00 PM CDT): Anyone's Legend vs Karmine Corp
5:00 PM ET (4:00 PM CDT): G2 Esports vs Dplus KIA
6:00 PM ET (5:00 PM CDT): Team Liquid Alienware vs CTBC Flying Oyster
7:00 PM ET (6:00 PM CDT): LOS vs T1
8:00 PM ET (7:00 PM CDT): Team Secret Whales vs LYON

Only the 1:00 PM start is Riot's published broadcast start. The seven after it are hourly slots, and a best-of-one can start later than its slot if the game before it runs long, so keep some slack around the match you want to see. Riot's ruleset also lets officials reorder matches within a day.

The last slot is midnight UTC, which is already October 24 in UTC. In New York and Texas it's still Friday evening.

Some sites list a different order, with Team Liquid second and Bilibili against KOI last. That's the order of the draw, not the order of play, which the ruleset leaves to Riot's officials. The order above is the official LoL Esports schedule.

What each match is about

1:00 PM ET: Gen.G vs Invictus Gaming

Gen.G won the LCK final on September 13, 3–1 over Hanwha Life, and are Korea's top seed. Invictus Gaming are China's fourth seed. They lost 3–1 to Top Esports in the LPL Regional Qualifier on September 17, then beat JD Gaming 3–1 two days later for the last LPL spot. It's the first of two Korea–China matches on the day. Match preview

2:00 PM ET: Hanwha Life Esports vs Top Esports

Hanwha Life won MSI in July, beating Bilibili Gaming 3–2 in the final on July 12. They finished second to Gen.G in the LCK and are Korea's second seed. Top Esports came through the LPL Regional Qualifier as China's third seed, beating Invictus Gaming 3–1. Match preview

3:00 PM ET: Bilibili Gaming vs Movistar KOI

Bilibili Gaming finished second at MSI, losing the final to Hanwha Life, and in LPL Split 3, losing the final 3–1 to Anyone's Legend. They're China's second seed on championship points. Movistar KOI are the LEC's second seed. They beat Karmine Corp 3–0 in the lower final, then lost the September 20 final 3–0 to G2. Match preview

4:00 PM ET: Anyone's Legend vs Karmine Corp

Anyone's Legend won the LPL Split 3 final on September 13, 3–1 over Bilibili Gaming, and are China's top seed. Karmine Corp, the LEC's third seed, are the only team in the Swiss Stage that came through the Play-In in Los Angeles. They won it without losing a series: 3–2 over Cloud9 Kia, then two 3–0 sweeps of MVK Esports, the second on October 18 for the Swiss spot. Friday is their first match since, after four days off that also covered the move from Los Angeles to Allen. Match preview

5:00 PM ET: G2 Esports vs Dplus KIA

G2 won the LEC Summer final on September 20, 3–0 over Movistar KOI, and are the LEC's top seed. Dplus KIA are Korea's fourth seed. That slot opened up because Hanwha Life qualified as MSI champion and also finished in the LCK's top three. It's the only LEC–LCK match of the round. Match preview

6:00 PM ET: Team Liquid Alienware vs CTBC Flying Oyster

Team Liquid Alienware (TLAW on the official schedule) won the LCS Summer final on October 4, 3–1 over LYON, and are North America's top seed. CTBC Flying Oyster are the LCP's second seed after losing the Split 3 final 3–0 to Team Secret Whales on August 30. Cloud9 Kia went out in the Play-In, so TLAW and LYON are North America's only teams in the Swiss Stage. Match preview

7:00 PM ET: LOS vs T1

T1 are three-time defending world champions. They won in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and they're going for a fourth straight title. This year they're Korea's third seed, after losing the LCK lower final 3–1 to Hanwha Life on September 12. LOS, written Los Grandes on Wikipedia, won the CBLOL Split 2 final on October 10, 3–2 over FURIA, and are Brazil's top seed. It's the second-to-last match of the day. Match preview

8:00 PM ET: Team Secret Whales vs LYON

Team Secret Whales beat CTBC Flying Oyster 3–0 in the LCP Split 3 final and are the LCP's top seed. LYON are North America's second seed after losing the LCS Summer final to Team Liquid Alienware. Their match closes the day. Match preview

How the Swiss Stage works

Sixteen teams play five rounds. Three match wins send a team to the Knockout Stage, and three match losses eliminate it.
Rounds 1 and 2 are eight best-of-ones each.
Round 3 has four best-of-threes, for the 2–0 and 0–2 teams, and four best-of-ones for the 1–1 teams.
Round 4 is six best-of-threes, and Round 5 is three.
Any match that decides advancement or elimination is a best-of-three.

Round 1 was drawn on October 18 in Los Angeles, right after the Play-In final. Teams were split into four tiers: Tier 1 played Tier 4, Tier 2 played Tier 3, and no Round 1 match is between two teams from the same region. From Round 2 on, teams with the same record are paired at random. There are no rematches, and same-region matches are allowed.

That's why only Friday's matchups are known. A win puts a team in Saturday's 1–0 group and a loss in the 0–1 group, and the Round 2 draw is made right after Friday's last match. A 2–0 team is one win from the quarterfinals, but that win has to come in a best-of-three.

How to watch

LoL Esports: lolesports.com is the official home of the broadcast.
YouTube: the LoL Esports channel, youtube.com/@lolesports, carries the English broadcast and VODs.
Twitch: twitch.tv/riotgames is an official LoL Esports channel.
Kick: since MSI 2026, Riot's global LoL Esports events have also been broadcast live on Kick, excluding China and Korea.

Pick'Ems lock before 1:00 PM ET

Swiss Pick'Ems lock on October 23, before the first Swiss match. That means before 1:00 PM ET (10:00 AM Pacific). You can make your picks at lolesports.com/pickems or in the League client.

Converting to other US time zones

Until November 1, Central, Mountain and Pacific time are also on daylight time, so:

Central: ET minus 1 hour. The opener is at 12:00 PM.
Mountain: ET minus 2 hours, so 11:00 AM.
Pacific: ET minus 3 hours, so 10:00 AM.
Arizona doesn't use daylight time (the Navajo Nation reservation does), so during the Swiss Stage its clocks match Pacific time: also 10:00 AM.

Some guides give the start as "10 AM PST". In October the West Coast is on daylight time, so read it as 10:00 AM PDT. That's the same moment as 1:00 PM ET.

What comes after Friday

Each round is drawn after the one before it, starting with Round 2 right after Friday's matches. So these are start times only; the matchups come later.

Saturday, October 24: Round 2, eight best-of-ones, hourly from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET.
Sunday, October 25: Round 3 starts, the first round in which teams can qualify or go out. Best-of-ones at 1:00 and 2:00 PM ET, best-of-threes at 3:00 and 6:00 PM ET.
Monday, October 26: Round 3 finishes, at the same times. The Round 4 draw follows.
Tuesday, October 27: no matches.
Wednesday, October 28 to Friday, October 30: Round 4, two best-of-threes a day, starting later, at 4:00 and 7:00 PM ET.
Saturday, October 31: Round 5, three best-of-threes at 1:00, 4:00 and 7:00 PM ET. It's the last Swiss day, and the quarterfinal draw follows.

The clocks change after that. On November 1, New York switches to Eastern Standard Time (EST, UTC−5). The quarterfinals (November 3–6) and semifinals (November 7–8) are one best-of-five a day at 5:00 PM EST, also in Allen. The final is on November 14 at 2:00 PM EST at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The prize pool is $5 million, and $1 million of it goes to the champion.

Every game is played on Patch 26.20, which toned down Ambessa, Ashe and K'Sante and buffed Kennen and Kindred. Our Patch 26.20 post has the details, and our Worlds guide covers the whole event.

Worlds 2026 Swiss Day 1: every match in Eastern Time

Friday's schedule