Worlds 2024: BLG Bests HLE and Advances to Semifinals

The most anticipated quarterfinals match of Worlds 2024 has gone the way of Bilibili Gaming. The LPL first seed took down the LCK’s first seed Hanwha Life Esports in a 3-1 affair. Following Weibo’s win over LNG yesterday, both Worlds 2024 playoff matches so far have resulted in the team that finished lower in Swiss coming out on top.

Number 1 vs Number 1

In very few years do we actually get a Worlds matchup between the winner of the LPL and LCK Summer Splits, this being just the third time ever. The two top regions that League of Legends has to offer have had a rivalry for most of the game’s life. With Korean squads winning the last two Worlds as well as MSI and EWC this year, China has been on the back foot.

BLG made headlines in the Swiss Stage for struggling all the way through. With losses to LNG and T1, they were forced to round five where they were nearly eliminated by G2 Esports. It was not a good look for the LPL’s greatest hope on paper.

Conversely, HLE made it through in four rounds with a single best-of-three loss in an LCK Summer Finals rematch against Gen.G. Hanwha did take a game, so perception of their ability was still high, higher than BLG’s at least.

Bilibili Composed and Creative

That perception remained true through game one of the series. HLE styled on their opponents using champions that they’re all incredibly comfortable on. Park “Viper” Do-hyeon’s Ezreal and Han “Peanut” Wang-ho’s Poppy were among the biggest players. If the drafts and games kept going like this, it would be a quick series.

However, BLG immediately swapped up their draft strategy in game two. They immediately banned Poppy, Sylas, and Ezreal, three of HLE’s picks from before. BLG then prioritized Yone for Zhuo “knight” Ding and Rumble for Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin. Using these power pick solo laners, BLG had free reign of the map and steamrolled through HLE in just 27 minutes.

Game three saw HLE move back to blue side. Though they could have tried a similar draft to game one, they went with Jax priority for a struggling Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon, which resulted in a weak Ahri and Zeri backline. BLG made use of their superior composition to earn incremental leads. By the end, Hanwha could do nothing as knight’s Sylas ran them down.

With just one more game needed to secure the win, Bilibili Gaming pulled out an unorthodox Galio Kindred composition. Game four was extremely chaotic as both teams jostled for position. With Galio ults flying everywhere, BLG out-fought HLE thanks to Zhao “Elk” Jia-Hao’s amazing Kai’Sa play to close out the series.

WHAT IS THIS FIGHT pic.twitter.com/HLyVSXxLX2

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 18, 2024

With this victory, Bilibili Gaming has advanced to the Worlds Semifinals for the second straight year. They will face off against Weibo Gaming next week for a spot in the Grand Finals.