Invictus Gaming and
LNG Esports faced off at the Xi’an Qujiang Esports Center on January 1, 2026, for the first
Demacia Cup semifinal. The series ended in a dominant 3-0 win for iG, a clean sweep that abruptly halted LNG’s run in the competition, which had been going fairly well for them up to that point.
iG are therefore on course for their third Demacia Cup title. Champions of the inaugural edition in 2014 and again at Winter 2018, they will play their fifth final against the winner of the best-of series between JD Gaming and LGD Gaming. In the previous round, they eliminated
Top Esports with a 3-1 victory.
The best-of series between Invictus Gaming and LNG Esports was never really close. A fairly long opening game eventually ended after 38 minutes, with Ying “
Photic” Qi-Shen being named MVP following a strong Varus performance: 8/1/10, 82% kill participation, and 37% of the team’s total damage.
The next two games were wrapped up in under 30 minutes. In Game 2, Yan “Wei” Yang-Wei locked in Malphite jungle and completely dominated the matchup, finishing 10/0/12 and clearly outperforming Kim “Croco” Dong-beom. In the final game, Photic once again secured MVP honors, this time on Kai’Sa.
The most decorated player in the history of the competition with five Demacia Cup titles, Tian “Meiko” Ye, support for iG, will not be able to add a sixth trophy to his resume, as he has been replaced by Sun “Jwei” Jun-Wei for the start of the competitive year. The next semifinal will be played on January 2, with the final scheduled for January 3.
