Korea’s LCK might have seen three individual teams reach the semifinals of the 2021 League of Legends World Championship, but China’s LPL stood tall today when EDward Gaming secured a narrow 3-2 victory over Gen.G to reach the tournament’s grand final.
Though Gen.G maintained control over the first half of the series, Scout and EDG controlled the tempo of the battle’s closing games. Scout’s masterful performances on control mages such as Orianna, Ryze, and Zoe helped quell Gen. G’s red-hot mid laner Bdd.
At the three-minute mark of the series’ fourth game, Scout secured an early double kill in Gen. G’s jungle that would eventually turn the tide of the entire match. Scout posted an enormous scoreline of 25/6/24 across the five games, hoisting the rest of EDG on his back throughout the day. Across EDG’s final two games today, Scout secured 18 kills and only died once, posting a KDA of 32.0 in those two contests alone.
A victory by Gen.G would have set up the first all-Korean Worlds final since 2017. Instead, an LPL representative will fight for the Summoner’s Cup for the fourth consecutive year. In two of the last three Worlds finals, a Chinese team has taken home League’s top prize.
EDG earned their first appearance at an international final since the 2015 Mid-Season Invitational when the team defeated SK Telecom T1. Franchise support player Meiko is the only one from that matchup who remains on the team’s roster.
Moving to the Worlds finals is a historic moment for the team, who advanced past the quarterfinal round of the World Championship for the first time in franchise history last week. The team went to the quarterfinals of Worlds on four prior occasions dating back to 2014 but had never advanced to the semifinals.
Waiting for EDG on the other side of the bracket is DWG KIA, the defending League of Legends world champions. Earlier this season, DWG KIA faltered at the Mid-Season Invitational, losing that tournament’s grand final match to Royal Never Give Up—the same team EDG eliminated last week en route to today’s semifinal.
Both DWG KIA and EDward Gaming secured a victory in their respective domestic leagues this summer, with EDG claiming the LPL’s summer championship and DWG KIA winning the LCK Summer Split outright. Now, the champions of the game’s two strongest domestic leagues will clash in another chapter of League’s extensive China-Korea rivalry. Last season, DAMWON secured the victory in the grand finals over another Chinese team, Suning.
The 2021 League of Legends Worlds finals between EDward Gaming and DWG KIA will take place on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 7am CT.
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