Image: Riot Games
Despite a perfect run through the Swiss Stage, LNG Esports failed to make it out of the quarterfinals.
The League of Legends (LoL) World Championship 2024 Knockout Stage kicked off on Thursday (October 17) at the Adidas Arena in Paris, France. The first best-of-five Quarterfinals match featured an all-Chinese affair between 
LNG Esports and 
Weibo Gaming (WBG), with WBG emerging victorious after four games to advance to the Semifinals.
LNG and WBG earned their spots in this year's Worlds as the third and fourth seed, respectively, for China's LoL Pro League (LPL).
In the Swiss Stage, LNG qualified for the Knockout Stage with a perfect 3-0 record across three match wins. They defeated Team Liquid in the first round, upset LPL first seed Bilibili Gaming in the second, then soundly swept DPlus KIA in the third round to advance to the next round.
Meanwhile, WBG had a more arduous path to the Knockout Stage. They lost to Gen.G Esports in the first round of the Swiss Stage but managed to bounce back versus Liquid in the second. A loss to G2 Esports in the third round put them perilously close to an early elimination, but back-to-back 2-1 wins over Fnatic and DPlus KIA allowed WBG to earn a spot in the next stage.
With LNG's perfect run through the Swiss Stage, they were heavily favoured to win against a WBG squad that looked shaky in comparison. However, things looked much different once the match started.
vs
Weibo GamingWBG threw a haymaker at LNG to start the series, as Wang “Light” Guangyu on Ashe and Chen “Breathe” Chen on Gnar ran rampant in the 31-minute opener. In the decisive clash of the game at the 30-minute mark, Breathe somehow survived while getting focused on by LNG while Light was left free to wreak havoc and score a Triple Kill.
Breathe finished game one with three kills and two assists on one death while improving his perfect record on Gnar in Worlds 2024 so far to a 5-0. Light had four kills and assists apiece on three deaths while Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong on Skarner racked up five kills and six assists on four deaths.
Game two was a thrilling, back-and-forth affair. WBG were leading from the get-go and looked poised to take a 2-0 series lead around the 32-minute mark when they won a huge fight for Nashor and subsequently opened up LNG's base. However, LNG put forth a brilliant defence of their base to shift the momentum to their side.
WBG's attempts to regain the initiative proved ineffective as LNG claimed Baron at the 39-minute mark then proceeded to march down WBG's base and tie up the series at 1-1 after 43 minutes of action. Tang “Zika” Huayu on Jax led the way with seven kills and nine assists on two deaths while Wei “WeiWei” Bohan on Sejuani pitched in with six kills and 11 assists on four deaths.
Li “Xiaohu” Yuanhao then stepped up in the pivotal game three. WBG's mid laner put on a perfect eight-kill, eight-assist performance on Orianna as they dominated LNG to the tune of a 20-10 kill lead in 37 minutes. In the final clash of the game, WBG took full advantage of a botched LNG initiation, which left Xiaohu free to go ham, score an Ace, and give his team a commanding 2-1 series lead.
LNG looked deflated after their game three loss as they fell victim to another Xiaohu masterclass. This time around, WBG's mid laner put up a clean six-kill, 14-assist outing on Aurora as they completed the 3-1 upset in 30 minutes and with a lopsided 22-8 kill lead. Light on Ezreal also put up seven kills and assists on just one death while Breathe had five kills and seven assists on three deaths.
With their victory, WBG become the first team to advance to the Worlds 2024 Semifinals and guarantee themselves at least a 3rd-4th place finish as well as $178,000 in winnings. They will next face the winner of the second Quarterfinals match between Hanwha Life Esports and Bilibili Gaming for the first spot in the Grand Finals.
Meanwhile, LNG bow out of Worlds 2024 in 5th-8th place and will take home $100,125 in consolation.
