LoL - Worlds: Invictus Gaming, A scent of champion (13/17)

The League of Legends 2025 World Championship kicks off in Beijing on the 14th of October. A total of 17 teams will compete to, again, succeed T1 at the top of the Riot Games MOBA world hierarchy. On this occasion, Sheep Esports brings you a daily feature on one of the teams taking part. On October 9th, the thirteenth episode of our series focuses on Invictus Gaming.

Invictus Gaming are back at Worlds after years in the shadows. Since 2019, the legendary LPL organization hadn’t participated in the biggest international event, but now they’ve finally returned. The 2018 world champions will face a decisive Best-of-5 Play-In match to see if they can reach the Main Stage — and it won’t be against just anyone, but the five-time world champions, T1.

Since their 2019 season, when the team won the LPL Spring Split and reached the Worlds semifinals, the organization has gone through a long drought. In 2020, they finished fourth in Spring and sixth in Summer. 2021 marked the final year of the two legends, Kang "TheShy" Seung-lok and Song "Rookie" Eui-jin, as IG ended 10th in Spring and 13th in Summer — a collapse that symbolized the end of the team’s golden era.

The following three years were marked by low-cost rosters and bottom-table finishes, until the organization was bought out. TheShy and Rookie returned, joined by several big names, to finally restore IG’s prestige and chase the glory of the past.

IG’s year has been somewhat of a mixed bag. The start of the season was rough as the team found its footing, but they managed to finish third in Split 2, narrowly missing both MSI and EWC after falling to Bilibili Gaming in the lower bracket final. A roster change came in the Summer Split, with Zhao "Jiejie" Li-Jie leaving and Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei joining the lineup. The regular season showed promise for IG, but the playoffs were far less convincing, with back-to-back losses to BLG and Anyone’s Legend.

In the Regional Finals, they fell to Top Esports, which denied them a direct Main Stage qualification as the third seed. However, they redeemed themselves in the last chance match against JD Gaming, securing victory thanks in large part to an outstanding series from Wei.

All of IG’s players have been impressive this year. TheShy has been his usual self, Jiejie was arguably the team’s best player when he was around, and at times, Wei proved to be the true game changer during the Summer Split. At 28, Rookie has found a second wind, performing at an exceptional level, while Tian "Meiko" Ye is gradually adapting to life outside of EDward Gaming.

Read Also: Worlds return to a live Chinese audience for the first time since 2017

But if there’s one player who truly stands out, it’s none other than AD Carry Chen "GALA" Wei. He’s having a phenomenal year with Invictus Gaming — topping the Summer regular season with the highest KDA, leading in average kills with over seven per game, and recording the fewest deaths among all Ascend Group players. With two pentakills to his name during the Split 3, he’s been the team’s main carry and the centerpiece of IG’s success throughout 2025.

While IG’s roster is highly competitive and a top-four finish wouldn’t be surprising, an early exit is also very much on the table. As the LPL’s fourth seed, they’ll have to go through the Play-In stage on October 14, where they’ll face T1 — the LCK’s fourth seed. In a best-of-five, the two world champions will clash early in what promises to be one of the most intense series of this year’s Worlds, right from the very start of the tournament.