Grok 5 is set to play League of Legends in an attempt to beat the greatest esports team of all time

In a bid to put his AI technology to the ultimate test, Elon Musk has wagered that Grok 5 could become a gaming guru as it is set to play the six-time world-champion League of Legends team T1 in a throwdown for the ages.

If AI could conquer any industry, you’d imagine it might be gaming.

Considering the correlations between artificial tech and gaming, the AI faithful believe that software like Grok 5 could soon learn the patterns of the toughest games in the world and become the world champion.

One of the bel-ai-vers is Elon Musk, and hot off the back of T1 winning the League of Legends world championship for the third time in a row, he’s wagered that Grok 5 could be their undoing.

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League of Legends icons accept wild Grok 5 throwdown

Having already been deployed as the assistant driver in Tesla cars, Grok 5 is now looking to become an elite gamer.

With AI now being used in a range of games, including the most recent FPS titles Arc Raiders and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Grok 5 wants a slice of the lucrative esports pie.

Taking to X (previously Twitter), the Grok 5 creator challenged T1 to an exhibition match.

“Let’s see if Grok 5 can beat the best human team in League of Legends in 2026,” he wrote.

He continued to place constraints on the match, revealing that the AI can only look at the monitor with a camera, ‘seeing no more than what a person with 20/20 vision would see,’ and having a reaction latency the same as the gaming athletes.

“Grok 5 is designed to be able to play any game just by reading the instructions and experimenting,” he added.

The challenge immediately split opinions. Previously, OpenAI was able to beat Dota 2 players in an exhibition, but LoL fans claimed that their game is far too heavily weighted on team cohesion that a hivemind wouldn’t be able to execute.

“League has far too many variables/interaction & game knowledge context/legit team coordination required to win at the highest level, argued former professional player Joedat ‘Voyboy’ Esfahani.

Still, the reigning world champions, T1, replied to the challenge saying, “We are ready. R U?”

This gauntlet was even picked up by the game developers, Riot Games.

Co-founder and President Marc Merill replied, simply adding, “Let’s discuss :).”

Musk even teased the idea of having Grok AI be represented by robots playing mouse and keyboard, rather than being plugged into the mainframe.

If Grok could beat T1, it would spark an industry-wide worry for esports stars, as the organisation is widely renowned as the best team in any game, ever, spearheaded by the ‘GOAT’, Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok.

Who are T1, and why are they the best esports team of all time?

League of Legends is regarded as the biggest esports title in the world. Peaking at 6,856,769 viewers (expected to be double that with Chinese data that cannot be tracked), the World Championship finals get more eyes than premium sports events such as the NBA Finals and any F1 race ever.

Having run since 2011, South Korean side T1 (previously SK Telecom T1) has won Worlds six times, including the last three annual events.

Of those, Faker has played in each one, making him the most decorated gamer of all time and an official ambassador for BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Nike.

As recently as November 9, T1 was crowned as the champions once again, taking home a $1 million prize and a legacy that will be untouched for generations.

That is, unless Grok AI manages to take them down, and esports crumbles to the artificial bots.

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