Hanwha Life Esports continues their domination over the
First Stand by eliminating
Top Esports in the semifinals with a clean 3-0. They are heading to their first international final and will face
Karmine Corp, who beat
CTBC Flying Oyster 3-2 in a tough BO5, tomorrow at 9 AM CET / 1 AM PST. So far, HLE has dropped only two games throughout the tournament and remains undefeated in BOs.
Game 1 was quickly decided in HLE’s favor, and with their botlane so far ahead, a loss was never on the table for the Korean squad. On Alistar,
Yoo "Delight" Hwan-joong was involved in almost every kill (16 kill participation out of 17), perfectly protecting
Park "Viper" Do-hyeon, whose Ezreal finished 7/0/6. Game 2 turned out to be the bloodiest of the First Stand so far, with 52 kills in just 28 minutes—38 of them in HLE’s favor.
Han "Peanut" Wang-ho dominated with a 16/1/16 Vi, while
Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo’s Akali closed out the game with a 14/2/14 scoreline and over 4.5k gold ahead of
Lin "Creme" Jian.
The final game was much closer, with TES even holding a gold lead and hope of turning the series around. But a decisive teamfight at the drake, won by HLE, sealed TES’s fate. HLE has also demonstrated impressive flexibility in their drafts—after
Choi "Zeus" Woo-je played Vladimir yesterday, it was Zeka’s turn to pilot the pick today, adding yet another headache for opponents in draft.
Tomorrow, the LCK Cup champions will face Karmine Corp once again in the grand final after beating them 2-1 in the group stage. And while HLE come in as favorites, they’ll need to be careful—KC is one of the rare teams that managed to take a Nexus off them.
