Image credit: LoL Esports
Weibo Gaming and Bilibili Gaming went to Silver Scrapes in the first semifinals of Worlds 2023.
The first semifinal series of the League of Legends World Championship had 
Weibo Gaming and 
Bilibili Gaming go to Silver Scrapes but in the end, it was Weibo who came out on top. This will move Weibo to the grand finals, their first-ever as an organisation after they acquired Suning's LPL slot back in 2021. Weibo will now await the winner between fellow LPL org 
JD Gaming or the home ground favourite, 
T1.
Bilibili was another LPL org that made its Worlds debut this season and they finished in the top-four of the tournament, which is more than decent considering this has been its best season by far since joining the league in 2018. They were also responsible for sending home the number one seeds from the LCK and LEC respectively, which also included denying 
Gen.G a reverse-sweep comeback in the quarter-finals.
Back-and-forth between Weibo and Bilibili
We've only ever had two knockout stage series go to Silver Scrapes and both times Bilibili were involved. Unfortunately, they were on the losing end this time as Weibo got the better of them in the fifth and final game. However, this was the first series of Worlds 2023 that neither team was able to dominate consistently. It was a constant back-and-forth between both teams with Weibo getting the edge in game one.
Despite the first blood going to Bilibili, that only ended up being one of three kills in the first match as Weibo managed to keep them at arm's bay. 
Liu “Crisp” Quing-Song showed just why he's one of the best support players in the LPL as his Milio was able to be a constant nuisance to Bilibili. Even though he didn't get any kills and died twice, he was able to still able to play his part to secure 15 assists for himself. But it was the 2018 world champion top-laner 
Kang “TheShy” Seung-Iok who ran the show as his Rumble went riot with a KDA of 8/1/3.
The second match was much better from Bilibili as they were finally able to impose themselves in the series. Peng “XUN” Li-Xun was the only player in game one to have a hand in all three of his team's kills. And this time, XUN was able to put his Vi to work with four kills, two deaths, and 10 assists. The only one who had more than him was Luo “ON” Wen-Jun as his Ashe managed to get four kills, a sole death, and 15 assists. Even Ceng “YaGao” Qi and Zhao “Elk” Jia-Hao contributed massively to Bilibili's win as both players shared similar KDAs.
However, Weibo would respond almost instantly in the third game that they ended up dominating as well. This was the second game where Weibo won while keeping Bilibili back for the majority of the game. This time, they kept Bilibili to just four kills with YaGao getting three while XUN got the fourth. But on the blue side, it was TheShy and Yuan Hao “xiaohu” Li that walked away with perfect KDAs. The 2018 world champion toplaner looked to be back to his very best of five years ago as his Graves made an absolute meal of Bilibili on numerous occasions.
And just like a pendulum, the momentum would eventually shift over back to Bilibili in the fourth game where this time, they were able to hold Weibo back for most of the match. It was now Weibo who had to play catch up and ended the match with only three kills to their name, all of which went to xiaohu. But that didn't bother Bilibili much as Chen “bin” Ze-Bin and XUN had perfect KDAs to send it to a fifth and final game. Both XUN and ON were once again a dynamic duo when it came to their ganks as both players managed to get double-digit assists once again.
The fifth match was the closest both teams ever got to each other as it was do-or-die at that point. And surprisingly, it was Bilibili who had the better start to the game as they were able to go toe-to-toe against Weibo. However, all it took was one Baron attempt from Weibo to turn the tides as they were able to mitigate the early damage done by Bilibili. But that wasn't the end as Bilibili would not back down and were able to bring the gold difference down to even multiple times.
But it wasn't enough as Guang-Yu “Light” Wang played like a man possessed to get 12 kills and just two deaths alongside five assists. He was also the only player to get double-digit kills in the entire series. But it also worked out in Weibo's favour with xiaohu's Azir, who was able to set up fights perfectly for Light's Kalista to capitalise on. WeiWei's Maokai also turned out to be a great pick as he got 12 assists, only one of three from Weibo to get double-digit assists alongside TheShy and Crisp.
A return to the Grand Finals
While this will be Weibo's first-ever grand finals in their Worlds debut, the same can't be said for TheShy and Crisp, former world champions back in 2018 and 2019 who will be making a return to the biggest stage of them all next week. TheShy was part of the 
Invictus Gaming squad that won the Summoner's Cup for the LPL in front of a South Korean crowd while Crisp did the double for China the following year with 
FunPlus Phoenix.
This will also be the first world championship grand final appearance for xiaohu, who already has three MSI and five LPL titles to his name. As for Light, this is only his second-ever Worlds appearance while this is WeiWei's debut as well. Weibo's run at Worlds 2023 cannot be chalked down to luck given the amount of experience the squad has and it will be interesting to see just how well they can perform in the grand finals.
