The Knight's Rivals phase has come to an end, with four teams eliminated and four others advancing to the Knockout Stage.
EDward Gaming,
Ninjas in Pyjamas,
LGD Gaming, and
ThunderTalk Gaming are officially out of LPL Split 2. Meanwhile,
Top Esports, first in the Ascend group, chose to face
FunPlus Phoenix;
Anyone’s Legend selected
Team WE;
JD Gaming picked
Weibo Gaming; and
Bilibili Gaming, the fourth seed, were matched with
Invictus Gaming.
In the last match of the phase, Weibo completely dominated TT in a result that was largely expected. During the regular season, Weibo finished 7th in the Ascend group, ahead of TT, who ended dead last with only three wins. It’s also worth noting that TT lost their starting jungler mid-season —
Yang "Beichuan" Ling — who moved to Bilibili Gaming. Since his arrival, BLG have dropped only one series, boasting an 8-1 record.
Weibo closed out the series with confidence in a clean and controlled 3-0 sweep. Game 1 was relatively slow-paced, but Weibo steadily ramped up the pressure, picking the right fights. Game 2 was a stomp from start to finish, with WBG snowballing hard and stat-checking their opponents at every turn. The game ended 22-5, with Gao "
Tian" Tian-Liang delivering a flawless performance on Wukong: a perfect 10/0/12 scoreline, 100% kill participation, top damage in the game, and — most importantly — total control over every objective with razor-sharp Smites.
The final game started with a bang — four kills in the first four minutes, three of them going to TT. But despite their early lead, they couldn’t hold off a stronger team. Weibo outclassed them in teamfights, Tian once again landed the better Smite on the Atakhan, and a final fight during a base siege sealed the deal. Weibo closed out a one-sided BO5, securing exactly 22 kills in each game.
The Knockout Stage kicks off on May 31 with TES vs. FPX at 8 AM CET, followed by IG vs. BLG. The remaining two BO5s — AL vs. WE and JDG vs. Weibo — will be played the next day. This time, the losers won’t be eliminated right away, as a lower bracket is now in play. That means over two more weeks of competition before the grand final on June 14. The two finalists will also qualify for MSI, set to begin on the 27th in Canada.
