LoL EWC 2026 Playoffs Betting Tips – Saturday, July 18

The League of Legends Esports World Cup 2026 enters the semifinals on Saturday, July 18, with T1 clashing with Karmine Corp, followed by a meeting between Gen.G and Dplus KIA.

Esportbet brings you free League of Legends betting predictions and picks for the two fixtures, along with odds courtesy of the best esports bookmakers.

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  Winrz Luv @888Starz

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Following a minor slip-up against Bilibili Gaming in the group stage, T1 have picked themselves up and qualified for the EWC playoffs with a dominant victory against GAM Esports, adding an impressive win over Hanwha Life Esports in the quarterfinals.

It was arguably one of T1’s best performances in recent history and a good indication that the reigning world champions came to France to win.

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  Vivacious Vavada!

Kim “Peyz” Soo-hwan, in particular, had an outstanding performance on the day, posting a 16/2/18 K/D/A, slightly above top laner Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, who stepped up against his former team with 15/4/13.

Karmine Corp have been all over the place with their performances of late, but they managed to defeat AG.AL in the quarterfinals by punishing the Chinese squad’s mistakes and producing some individual moments of brilliance.

While KC’s win over AG.AL was impressive, T1 are an entirely different beast. On the other hand, Karmine Corp should have taken one map off T1 at MSI, and with the form the European squad have shown, they should be in a fine spot to do some damage on Saturday.

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Gen.G have lived up to their tag as the pre-tournament favourites by producing a perfect run to the semifinals, beating Karmine Corp, Sentinels, and JD Gaming in the quarterfinals.

The latter game was the toughest and the first real test for Gen.G at the Esports World Cup, and they completed it with flying colours, beating JD Gaming with relative ease.

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That said, Gen.G did show some cracks in the bottom lane, namely on the second map, which gives Dplus KIA at least something to target.

Following a rough start to the tournament, Dplus KIA stunned Bilibili Gaming in the quarterfinals, proving both how high their ceiling is and just how two-faced DK can be.

This can work in their favour on a good day, but Heo “ShowMaker” Su and his crew are a very hard sell against Gen.G, who know Dplus KIA very well and, more importantly, know how to deal with them.

Gen.G are 3-1 up in the head-to-head against Dplus KIA this season, and considering their form, it is easy to imagine Gen.G extending that record to 4-1.