Karmine Corp secured a decisive 3-0 victory over MVK in Round 2 of the Upper Bracket in the 2026 LoL World Championship Play-In Stage, held early in the morning on October 17 KST at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, USA. Karmine Corp is now just one win away from qualifying for the Swiss Stage.
It was a dominant start right from Game 1. Caliste's Draven and Busio's Nautilus scored a double kill in a level 3 2v2 fight to break the balance early, while Kyeahoo (Kang Ye-hoo) on Syndra and Canna (Kim Chang-dong) on Jayce took firm lane priority according to their matchups to expand their lead. Yike's Vi supported the team by steadily securing objectives.
MVK showed determination to catch up by securing kills through good bot-jungle plays, but the laning phase gap caused the global gold difference to keep widening. The CS gap in the mid lane exceeded 50, and by around 26 minutes, the top side alone held a gap of over 7,000 gold. Karmine Corp took Game 1 without facing a single crisis.
In Game 2, MVK subbed out their ace jungler Gury for SanSan and made a bold move by picking top Twisted Fate and mid Rumble. Early in the game, the match flowed into a brawl as MVK intended. SanSan's Qiyana actively intervened in lanes and landed continuous blows, reaching a 3/0/3 KDA in no time.
Karmine Corp caught the well-farmed Qiyana to take a breather. In the following teamfight over MVK's third dragon, Karmine Corp's damage dealers delivered, sweeping up kills to reverse the global gold deficit. MVK pulled off a surprise Baron at a good moment, but their team composition had already lost its power. Ultimately, Karmine Corp secured a major victory in the next Baron teamfight to close out the game.
In Game 3, MVK pulled out mid Kog'Maw, the card that had previously brought them victory against FURIA. However, Kyeahoo's Viktor maintained total lane priority to pressure Kog'Maw, while Yike's Jarvan IV intervened to hand him 3 deaths. To make matters worse, Canna's Kennen pulled off a superplay by dodging a gank and turning around a 1v2 to score a kill instead.
Having seized control, Karmine Corp took Baron at 21 minutes and pulled ahead by over 8,000 global gold. MVK showed resilience despite the disadvantage, shutting down Kennen and Viktor in succession and maximizing their poke potential to steal Baron during a teamfight. However, Karmine Corp was too experienced. While MVK's attention was drawn to Elder Dragon, Karmine Corp successfully executed a backdoor to put an end to the match.
