End of an era for
Weibo Gaming. Finalists at Worlds 2023 and semifinalists at Worlds 2024, the team will not take part in the 2025 edition of the premier competition. WBG was eliminated from the qualification race this Friday following their defeat against
JD Gaming, who move on to the final BO5 of the year in the
LPL, where they will face
Invictus Gaming.
IG had fallen the day before to Top Esports, who secured China’s third seed at Worlds.
JDG seem to have finally woken up after a rough start to the year, which began with a 7th–8th place finish in Split 2. With roster changes including
the arrival of Xu "Xiaoxu" Xing-Zu in the toplane and
Wang "Zhuo" Xu-Zhuo in the support role, the team struggled to find its footing. Split 3 was no easier, as they finished sixth in the regular season. In playoffs, they fell in the opening round to Bilibili Gaming before making a run through the lower bracket with wins over EDward Gaming and Weibo Gaming, only to eventually be swept by Anyone’s Legend.
JDG’s year may not have been spectacular, but when it truly matters for Worlds qualification, they deliver. Today, JDG started the series strong with a dominant performance in game one, closing it out in just 28 minutes with a perfectly executed snowball. The standout was Chinese jungler Peng "
Xun" Li-Xun on Jarvan IV, involved in 20 of his team’s 21 kills, while his midlaner was even more impressive with 100% kill participation.
Game two was again controlled by JDG, who built a 6k gold lead by the 22-minute mark. Yet, Li "Xiaohu" Yuanhao and Wang "Light" Guang-Yu kept Weibo in it, turning the game in their favor. Still, the top side of JDG proved decisive, as Xu "Xiaoxu" Xing-Zu and Xun put up massive performances on Renekton and Trundle, making them nearly unkillable.
The third game followed a similar script with JDG dominating early, but Light reached his Smolder scaling and flipped the game, giving Weibo their first win of the match and sparking a comeback attempt. Light took MVP honors for games one and two, and there was little reason to doubt he’d earn it again in game four. His combo with Lee "
Scout" Ye-chan on Pantheon and Twisted Fate provided relentless crowd control, securing the victory, eliminating Weibo from Worlds contention, and keeping JDG’s hopes alive.
