LoL: Invictus Gaming knocks Top Esports out of the Demacia Cup in the quarters

The first quarterfinal of this Demacia Cup knockout stage on December 26 saw Invictus Gaming face Top Esports, with iG coming out on top after a four-game battle. TES didn’t play the group stage thanks to their Worlds semifinal, so this was their only BO in the Demacia Cup.

On their side, iG will face the winner of the other quarterfinal between LNG Esports and Oh My God on December 28. Across the four games, Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei took two MVPs, the first went to TES jungler Yang "naiyou" Zi-Jian, and Ying "Photic" Qi-Shen claimed the MVP of the final game.

Even though it's just the Demacia Cup, a preseason warm-up tournament ahead of the LPL, iG and TES arrived with most of their main roster. On Invictus’ side, new Korean toplaner Lim "Soboro" Seong-min had a strong BO, Wei was undoubtedly the man of the match in the jungle, and Ying "Photic" Qi-Shen and Sun "Jwei" Jun-Wei had solid starts. Only Song "Rookie" Eui-jin was absent, replaced by Zhang "Renard" Xing-Che.

On TES’s side, their young new players took part in the match: jungler Yang "naiyou" Zi-Jian, ADC Zi "JiaQi" Jia-Qi, and support Wang "fengyue" Run-Lai. The bulk of the roster, solo laners Bai "369" Jia-Hao and Lin "Creme" Jian, did not play and were replaced by academy players Cheng "ZUIAN" Zi-Hao and Zou "Nia" Guang-Lu.

The other quarterfinals will see Anyone's Legend face LGD Gaming on the 29th, and JD Gaming take on EDward Gaming on the 27th. The winners of these matches will meet on one side of the bracket, while OMG and LNG will face off on the other, with the victor set to meet iG in the semifinals. By winning this quarterfinal, iG have already secured a cash prize of ¥200,000 (around €24,145), even if they lose in the semis.