Worlds 2024: BLG Sweeps Weibo to Advance to Grand Finals

In no time flat, Bilibili Gaming has taken the first Worlds 2024 semifinal against Weibo Gaming. This series had the potential to be very competitive. WBG had decent game states to play from in two of the three lost games. But it was all for nothing and the end result was a 3-0 sweep for the LPL first seed.

A Bold Strategy

They beat HLE in the quarterfinals and then BLG set their sights on Weibo.

Coming into this match, BLG prepared a specific strategy in the pick and ban. They were going to leave Yone, one of the best champions of the tournament, up and available for Weibo to take. As predicted, WBG took Yone for Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao in game one. The BLG response was the same one that Gen.G used to beat FlyQuest in game five last week: Smolder for Zhuo “Knight” Ding.

Game one was a pacifist run for the first 20 minutes. The teams spent the entire time farming, jockeying for Turret Plates, and doing their best to not get caught. When the first big team fight of the game comes right as Smolder hits his 225 stack mark, you know the game is going late.

Surprisingly, WBG’s skirmish-heavy comp was doing very well in fights despite the Kalista not getting accelerated.

The game remained close on the scoreboard nearly all the way through. However, knight’s Smolder kept getting items and stacks, turning the game into a ticking time bomb. In the end, WBG’s comp couldn’t get through the BLG frontline and Smolder carried them to a victory.

The Entire Kitchen Sink

Weibo’s response to losing this game one was to double down on fighting early. They re-drafted Kalista Renata bot lane and added Lucian mid for Xiaohu and flexed Maokai top to pick Elise of all things. This comp needed to faceroll fights early or die trying.

BLG knew this and set up trap plays in the early game, all of which went well. Once again though, Weibo made multiple good rotations  and played the mid game well to stay in the running. After a super chaotic fight, WBG even took the first Baron at the price of a couple kills.

From this point on though, WBG fell apart due to multiple poor moves. The mid lane gap was entirely visible as knight’s Syndra carried almost every fight with perfect stuns and skillshots while Xiaohu struggled to deal more than negligible damage. BLG took game three in 30 minutes.

Show of Dominance

Game three was the most one-sided of the bunch. BLG picked Jax and Skarner topside for the third game in a row. They forced WBG into another Yone pick, then when Smolder got banned, knight pulled out Akali and outplayed the Yone at every step.

Whereas the previous games all remained within three to four thousand gold discrepancies, this one spiraled out of control fast. BLG amassed kill after kill on their way to a 10k gold lead by the end. Knight’s Akali went 8/0/7 and looked godlike, putting him on track as one of the best players at Worlds 2024.

📈 https://t.co/Q2WYT1Ihf7 pic.twitter.com/juek65YsFD

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) October 26, 2024

After a casual 27 minute affair Bilibili Gaming locked in the 3-0 sweep to move on to potentially win Worlds 2024 Grand Finals. They will face the winner of T1 vs Gen.G next Saturday.