Bilibili Gaming secured a convincing 3-1 victory over Invictus Gaming on Tuesday, September 9, earning their ticket to the LPL Upper Bracket Final. In this upcoming match, they will face the winner of Top Esports versus Weibo Gaming, with the winner advancing to the LPL Grand Finals. It’s important to note that only the ultimate champion of this tournament will qualify directly for Worlds 2025, while the remaining three representatives will earn their spots either through championship points or via the regional finals.

The two teams had previously faced each other to close out the regular season, with IG coming out on top 2-0. Since then, both teams advanced through the first round of the play-ins, with IG easily sweeping Edward Gaming, while BLG struggled and had to reverse sweep JD Gaming, notably after substituting Yang "Beichuan" Ling in for Zhao "Shad0w" Zhi-Qiang. For today’s match, the team kept Beichuan as the starter, and once again he impressed, with his break clearly seeming to have done him a world of good.

BLG in excellent form

BLG turned this series into their playground. Game 1 kicked off with a solo kill from Zhuo "Knight" Ding against Song "Rookie" Eui-jin, and with his Aurora he continued to dominate the match, showing once again that putting gold into him early is often a great idea. BLG logically opened the score. Game 2 was slightly tighter, but BLG still came out on top.

Beichuan had a very strong start on his Qiyana, a pick that’s always exciting to see and is making a comeback in the LPL while also appearing in other leagues. Zhao "Elk" Jia-Hao first-picked Kai’Sa, likely to deny her from one of the greatest players on the champion, Chen "GALA" Wei, who had a solid performance and tried to keep IG alive.

Game 3 was a textbook front-to-back execution from IG, with tanks built around Rookie’s Azir and GALA’s Jhin. It worked perfectly, forcing BLG to wait until Game 4 to close out the series. The final game was a hard-fought battle with both teams trading blow for blow. Knight locked in the first Lissandra of the Summer across all major leagues, while Bin on K’Sante showcased his skill on the champion. With this victory, BLG now stand just one best-of away from the Grand Final.

A packed schedule, spots hard to secure

Tomorrow, September 10, the other Upper Bracket Final between TES and Weibo will determine who joins BLG. On September 11, EDG and JDG will face off in a do-or-die match, followed by Ninjas in Pyjamas taking on Anyone’s Legend in their elimination match on September 12. The LPL remains the only region in the world to qualify its teams through a different format. While other leagues rely solely on playoffs, the LPL decides its representatives first through playoffs, then championship points, and finally the regional final.

Header Photo Credit: LPL/Riot Games