New format, same ending: four storylines that defined League of Legends esports in 2025

Riot Games’ three-split calendar, the introduction of Fearless Draft, and major ecosystem shifts completely changed the way teams prepared and competed, with narratives often flipping month by month. However, as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Gen.G was in control for most of the year, with top LPL teams like Anyone’s Legend challenging for the crown. The Western teams closed the gap but still need more to fight consistently for the top spots — and when the season reached an epic conclusion, the old guard continued to rise to the top.

Esports Insider takes a look at four major storylines, in particular, that dominated the League of Legends esports scene in 2025.   

If 2025 had a single defining phrase, it was the new era with the introduction of the Fearless Draft and three-split seasons across most international leagues — aside from the LCK.

With every major region now creating qualification routes to three international competitions, the year became a rolling pressure test. There was barely time to breathe between splits, and form stopped being something teams could ‘peak’ into for playoffs; players had to show up sharp week after week, or the schedule would expose them. 

Fearless Draft only raised the stakes further. Coaching staff were pushed into the spotlight as draft plans had to survive four and five-game series.

In that environment, the best teams weren’t always the ones with the biggest individual names. More often, rosters with the cleanest synergy, the widest functional champion pools, and the ability to execute multiple drafts shone throughout 2025. 

From a fan perspective, all the changes from this season made League of Legends esports even more exciting, especially given the increased diversity in high-stakes matches. Teams would often choose unconventional picks in the last games of each series, adding more layers of strategic depth that weren’t present in the past decade and a half. 

If there was another team that deserves a mention this year when it comes to consistency, it must be Anyone’s Legend (AL). With no superstars on their roster, AL was the only LPL team that pushed Korean squads to the limit. 

Unfortunately, it was never able to overcome that: AL lost the five-game series to Gen.G at MSI and the Esports World Cup, and was eliminated in the same fashion by T1 at Worlds quarterfinals. With AL running back the same roster in 2026, the Chinese team will have the chance to prove that limits can be broken.

Speaking of limits, the 2025 season was a bittersweet one for Western League of Legends teams. Even though it feels like the gap to the Eastern teams is shrinking, the difference is still substantial. 

Fearless Draft definitely helped with closing the gap, but it still feels like Western teams lack the same composure and teamfighting capabilities shown by the top Eastern squads. For EU fans, however, the 2025 season can be considered a positive one, given that G2 ended up in the top eight at Worlds again after missing out on the two previous editions.

And while the “golden era” is distant memories, 2025 did feel like a step in the right direction for the broader Western ecosystem. Teams like FlyQuest and MKOI added more competitive weight to the international pool. 

It’s worth mentioning, however, that the North American and South American regions struggled to drive engagement. The LTA rebrand didn’t work out as intended, and the viewership was only saved by the strong numbers from the LTA South Conference, according to Esports Charts.

With three international events and more best-of series in the 2026 calendar, the Western teams have a real chance to accelerate that trend by giving them more opportunities in the exact environments where they’ve historically been punished the most.

In the end, the season that did everything it could to engineer uncertainty and volatility still arrived at the same conclusion: T1 lifting the Summoner’s Cup in front of thousands and thousands in Chengdu, China. 

The team led by Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok proved once again that T1 is the team to beat when it comes to League of Legends, and that his legacy is still far from being broken.

While the three-peat itself is a big achievement on its own, it’s the way T1 won it that stood out. The team was the first team to play at Worlds in the play-in stage against Invictus Gaming and fought until the very end, facing all the top contenders such as Anyone’s Legend, Gen.G, and KT Rolster.

And if Faker is the constant of T1, Gumayusi was the defining image. After a rollercoaster of a season, which saw him benched at the start of the year, Gumayusi proved to everyone that he’s still one of the best ADCs in the world, carrying the team when he needed to and earning the Finals MVP — a perfect redemption story.

But just when it seemed like the story had reached its perfect ending, a new chapter opened almost immediately. Last month, Gumayusi announced his departure from the team, joining rival team Hanwha Life Esports and reuniting with his former T1 teammate Choi “Zeus” Woo-je. After becoming a part of the greatest legacy in LoL esports, Gumayusi now has the chance to write a new one — this time, without T1.