HLE vs TES at Worlds 2026: Friday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m. ET, with the MSI champion in a best-of-one

The reigning MSI champion opens Worlds 2026 early on Friday afternoon against an LPL team with a point to prove. Here’s when HLE vs TES starts in every time zone, who plays and how both teams got to Texas.

What time is HLE vs TES?

Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET (Oct. 24 at 3 a.m. in Seoul and Tokyo, Oct. 23 at 11:30 p.m. in India), which is 11 a.m. PT and 1 p.m. local time in Allen, Texas. Riot’s official schedule lists it as the second of eight Round 1 games in the Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage, right after Gen.G vs. Invictus Gaming at 1 p.m. ET. The day runs one game an hour and ends with LYON vs. Team Secret Whales at 8 p.m. ET.

Each game starts when the previous one ends, so the 2 p.m. slot moves later if the opener runs long. 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.

HLE vs TES time around the world

The game lands in the middle of the night for both teams' home fans. In Korea, it starts at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24, and in China at 2 a.m. Saturday. Vietnam watches at 1 a.m. Saturday.

Europe and the Americas get a friendlier slot: 7 p.m. Friday in London, 8 p.m. in Paris and Berlin, 3 p.m. in Brazil and noon in Mexico City. Clocks in Europe change on Oct. 25 and in the US on Nov. 1, so these times hold only for this game.

HLE: the MSI 2026 champion

Hanwha Life Esports won the biggest title of the first half of the season. HLE beat T1 3-1 in the LCK knockouts on June 12, then went to MSI 2026 in Daejeon, South Korea, and swept Team Secret Whales 3-0 on July 3 and G2 Esports 3-0 on July 5. Bilibili Gaming beat HLE 3-1 in the upper bracket final on July 9, and HLE answered through the lower bracket: 3-2 over LYON on July 11, then 3-2 over Bilibili Gaming in the final on July 12.

At home, HLE finished second in the LCK. It beat T1 3-2 on Sept. 2, lost 3-1 to Gen.G on Sept. 5, beat T1 again 3-1 on Sept. 12 and lost the final 3-1 to Gen.G on Sept. 13. The lineup in that final was Zeus in the top lane, Kanavi in the jungle, Zeka in the mid lane, Gumayusi as the bot laner and Delight as the support. Zeus and Gumayusi are both world champions from their years with T1.

TES: the long way to Texas

Top Esports reached MSI as the LPL runner-up after Bilibili Gaming beat it 3-0 in the final on June 14. Daejeon went badly: G2 Esports won 3-2 on July 3, and Team Secret Whales won 3-1 on July 5, two losses that ended TES’s MSI after two series.

The LPL playoffs in the fall brought more close losses, 3-2 to LGD Gaming on Aug. 29 and 3-2 to Invictus Gaming on Sept. 5, and Anyone’s Legend took the title by beating Bilibili Gaming 3-1 on Sept. 13. TES saved its season in the Regional Qualifier, beating Invictus Gaming 3-1 on Sept. 17. The lineup that day was ZUIAN in the top lane, Tian in the jungle, Creme in the mid lane, JackeyLove as the bot laner and Zhuo as the support.

Who wins HLE vs TES? Our pick

Our pick is HLE. The MSI title is the strongest résumé in this matchup, and the common opponent tells the story: HLE swept Team Secret Whales 3-0 in July, while the same TSW beat TES 3-1 two days later. HLE also played four best-of-fives against LCK rivals in September, with two wins over T1, and enters Worlds with a settled lineup.

TES’s case rests on the format and on experience. A best-of-one gives a team one draft to land a plan, and TES has two world champions of its own: JackeyLove, who won with Invictus Gaming in 2018, and Tian, who won with FunPlus Phoenix in 2019. Its MSI loss to G2 Esports and its playoff losses to LGD Gaming and Invictus Gaming all went to a fifth game, so the gap to the top is smaller than the record says. Both teams play on Patch 26.20, the Worlds patch, so the patch 26.21 changes don’t reach the stage.

The pairing comes from the draw tiers: HLE was in Tier 2 and TES in Tier 3. Our Worlds 2026 Swiss Stage page has all eight matchups.

How to watch HLE vs TES

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, an hour before HLE vs TES, 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. Later the same day, 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 HLE vs TES ends, with the result and the winner’s Round 2 opponent.