On October 2, South Korea secured Game 1 in the esports LoL final against Taiwan at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held at Aichi Sky Expo in Japan. Although South Korea fell behind early due to Taiwan's sharp early aggression, they overcame the deficit through individual skill to complete the comeback.
Having passed the group stage with a 3-0 record, South Korea advanced to the finals after displaying dominant performance without dropping a single set in their semifinal match against Saudi Arabia. Their opponent in the finals was Taiwan, a team they had already convincingly defeated in the group stage.
South Korea selected Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo as their starter for the finals. Entering Game 1 with Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu, Zeka, Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong, and Ryu "Keria" Min-seok, South Korea selected Galio, Pantheon, Ryze, Caitlyn, and Karma during the draft phase. Taiwan, featuring "1Jiang", "JunJia", "HongQ", "Doggo", and "ShiauC", completed their composition with Rumble, Qiyana, Orianna, Jhin, and Alistar.
Early in Game 1, Taiwan showed great movement. They secured first blood through a sharp bottom gank by JunJia's Qiyana and traded kills 2-1 in the fight around the Scuttle Crab. Having broken the balance in the bottom lane, Taiwan controlled the pace of the game with a firm grip on the initiative and pulled clearly ahead after winning a major teamfight around the third dragon.
However, South Korea proved why they are South Korea. In a fight over the Dragon Soul while trailing, they turned the tables and scored an Ace using their individual prowess. Zeus's Galio held the line to the extreme limit, while Zeka's Ryze survived to the end to finish off Doggo's Jhin. South Korea perfectly countered the opponent's strategy targeting Ryze in the side lane, turning the global gold lead in their favor.
South Korea widened the gap even further by winning another fight in front of Taiwan's Soul Dragon. Although Galio was picked off once, it did not affect the overall momentum. Ultimately, South Korea scored a second Ace in the final teamfight to complete their Game 1 comeback victory.
