G2 vs DK at Worlds 2026: Friday, Oct. 23, at 5 p.m. ET, with the LEC champion in a best-of-one

Europe’s best team of 2026 opens its Worlds against an LCK side that hasn’t played outside Korea all season. Here’s when G2 vs DK starts in every time zone, who plays and why the matchup is closer than the seeding says.

What time is G2 vs DK?

Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET (Oct. 24 at 6 a.m. in Seoul and Tokyo, 2:30 a.m. in India), which is 2 p.m. PT and 4 p.m. local time in Allen, Texas. Riot’s official schedule lists it as the fifth of eight Round 1 games in the Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage. Play starts at 1 p.m. ET with Gen.G vs. Invictus Gaming, Hanwha Life Esports vs. Top Esports follows at 2 p.m., and Anyone’s Legend vs. Karmine Corp comes right before G2 vs DK at 4 p.m. ET.

Each game starts when the previous one ends, so the 5 p.m. slot shifts later on a day of long games. All eight games are at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, north of Dallas, which hosts the Swiss Stage, the quarterfinals and the semifinals before the final moves to Brooklyn on Nov. 14.

G2 vs DK time around the world

For G2’s fans, it’s a Friday night game: 10 p.m. in London and 11 p.m. in Paris, Berlin and Madrid. In Korea, Dplus KIA’s home, it starts at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24. In Brazil, the game is at 6 p.m. Friday, and in Mexico City at 3 p.m. Clocks in Europe change on Oct. 25 and in the US on Nov. 1, so these times hold only for this game.

G2: three LEC titles and two wins over the LCK

G2 Esports ran the LEC in 2026. It beat Karmine Corp 3-2 in the final on March 1, beat Karmine Corp 3-2 again in the final on June 7 and swept Movistar KOI 3-0 on Sept. 20, after playoff wins over Team Vitality and Karmine Corp. The lineup in that final was BrokenBlade in the top lane, SkewMond in the jungle, Caps in the mid lane, Hans Sama as the bot laner and Labrov as the support.

G2 also beat LCK teams abroad. At First Stand in March, G2 swept BNK FEARX 3-0 and Gen.G 3-0 in the semifinals before Bilibili Gaming won the final 3-1. At MSI 2026 in Daejeon, South Korea, G2 beat Top Esports 3-2 and T1 3-1, lost 3-0 to the eventual champion Hanwha Life Esports and went out against LYON, finishing fourth. Against LCK teams in 2026, that’s three series wins in four tries.

DK: fourth in the LCK

Dplus KIA’s season was steady rather than spectacular. In the first LCK playoffs, DK beat KIWOOM DRX 3-2, DN SOOPers 3-1 and T1 3-2 before BNK FEARX swept it 3-0 on Feb. 28. In June, DK beat HANJIN BRION 3-0 and lost 3-2 to kt Rolster on June 7.

The fall playoffs followed the same pattern: a 3-0 loss to kt Rolster on Aug. 30, then wins over BNK FEARX 3-2 on Sept. 3 and kt Rolster 3-1 on Sept. 4, and a 3-1 loss to T1 on Sept. 6 that left DK fourth. That was enough, because Hanwha Life’s MSI title gave the LCK a fourth Worlds spot. The lineup is Siwoo in the top lane, Lucid in the jungle, ShowMaker in the mid lane, Smash as the bot laner and Career as the support. ShowMaker won Worlds in 2020 with the same organization, then called DAMWON Gaming.

Who wins G2 vs DK? Our pick

Our pick is G2. Three LEC titles, a 3-0 over Gen.G and a 3-1 over T1 make G2 the stronger team on paper and on results, and the draw tiers agree: G2 was in Tier 1, DK in Tier 4. The Caps and BrokenBlade core brings years of Worlds experience, and G2 played nine best-of-fives at First Stand and MSI while DK played none.

DK’s case is real, though. A best-of-one rewards a sharp draft over a long season, LCK teams have pushed each other hard all year, and DK beat both T1 and kt Rolster in playoff series. ShowMaker remains one of the best mid laners in the game, and the mid lane duel with Caps is the matchup to watch. Both teams play on Patch 26.20, the Worlds patch, so the patch 26.21 changes stay off the stage.

The draw kept G2 away from Karmine Corp, a fellow LEC team, as our Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage page explains.

How to watch G2 vs DK

Riot’s official LoL Esports broadcast carries every Worlds game on Twitch, YouTube and the LoL Esports site, and official co-streams pick up the same feed. Swiss Stage Pick’Ems lock before the first game at 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 23, four hours before G2 vs DK, as our Worlds 2026 Pick’Ems page explains.

The winner goes 1-0 and plays another 1-0 team in Round 2 on Saturday, Oct. 24, also a best-of-one, while the loser drops into the 0-1 pool. Three match wins sends a team to the quarterfinals, and three losses sends it home. Next up, Team Liquid Alienware plays CTBC Flying Oyster at 6 p.m. ET, and T1 plays LOS at 7 p.m. ET. For every match and result, see our Worlds 2026 schedule.

This page is updated as soon as G2 vs DK ends, with the result and the winner’s Round 2 opponent.