Weibo Gaming is on its own dream run at Worlds 2023.
The first quarter-final of the Worlds 2023 Knockout Stage took place today and it was Weibo Gaming who made light work of NRG to end the series 3-0. Weibo will now await the winner between Gen.G Esports and Bilibili Gaming to determine their next opponent. NRG's loss and eventual exit from Worlds 2023 also meant that the LCS is out of the tournament with only the LCK and LPL left, as usual.
With this being Weibo's first-ever Worlds appearance as an org, its line-up is anything but, and they showed just why. NRG's dream run would unfortunately come to an end despite the team's stellar performances during the Swiss Stage. Weibo took down NRG in the first-ever match of the previous round and the best-of-five rematch looked to be a great way to kickstart the Knockout Stage. Oddly enough, Weibo would lose to G2 Esports, who NRG decimated in two straight games…
- Check the results:
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Weibo GamingAnd NRG made sure that they would make Weibo work for its victories as the first match of the series turned out to be the closest of all three games. Game one was also the longest at almost 40 minutes as it was NRG who dominated for most of the match. But despite all that, NRG's lead was as much as just 3K in gold, which Weibo was able to respond with over time. Guang-Yu “Light” Wang was crucial in Weibo's first game victory due to the insane damage he was able to dish out with Aphelios while also getting three kills and three assists to go with zero deaths.
Liu “Crisp” Quing-Song was the only other player in the first match with a perfect KDA as he was involved in 80 per cent of Weibo's kills with seven assists. It was NRG's game to lose and it unfortunately turned out that way as they got outplayed by Weibo. And cracks were beginning to show in the second match when they stuck with the same four bans, which led to Weibo picking up the same four champions and placed Kang “TheShy” Seung-Iok on Aatrox instead.
But it would be Crisp once more on Milio and put in another strong performance, this time being featured in 90 per cent of his team's total kills. Crisp was also the only player on Weibo who ended the second match with a perfect KDA as he got two kills and 17 assists. And given his level of ability to place the team first, it was no wonder that Weibo would end up taking the second match with relative ease as they took a 1K gold lead by six minutes and never looked back.
By the third game, NRG had looked all out of sorts and if there was a time for them to truly shine, it was now. Sadly, that wasn't the case as Weibo were not going to be denied a semifinal berth. Both teams went for completely different comps this time in an attempt to shake things up and it was Weibo who got the better of NRG once again. NRG was only able to get themselves on the board with a handful of kills that were just trades in team fights. From start to finish, Weibo had a different intensity about their draft and this time, it was Yuan Hao “xiaohu” Li who led the way with his mid-lane Jayce.
He got himself 10 kills with two of those being solo plays to go with just two deaths and six assists. Crisp on Heimerdinger had another excellent showing as he got 10 assists alongside a sole kill and death. However, it would be Wei “Weiwei” Bohan who took the spotlight this time as his Maokai was all over the map. Weiwei got 11 assists as well as two kills and two deaths to bring Weibo over the finish line.
As NRG is now out of Worlds 2023, it has now become a strictly Eastern affair with four LPL teams and three LCK squads still in contention. And of the seven teams left, there are just five players left at this stage that have lifted the Summoner's Cup. Both TheShy and Crisp have already been down this road back in 2018 and 2019 respectively and will be hoping to recreate it once more but in different colours this time.
