BiliBili Gaming and Hanwha Life Esports clash for their first title at MSI 2026

The MSI 2026 final in Daejeon this Sunday will be a brand-new showdown. After surviving a tense 3-2 series against LYON, will meet in what looks like a clash between the two best teams in the tournament. For the sixth time in MSI history, the LCK will face the LPL in the final.

Historically, this matchup has leaned in BLG’s favor. The two teams have met only twice before, once in the quarterfinals of Worlds 2024 and once earlier this week in the MSI upper bracket, and both times the result was the same: a 3-1 win for the Chinese champions.

Experience at this level could prove decisive. Both teams share the same international title count, with two First Stand trophies each and nothing else to their name so far. Even when taking a look at their broader experience, it feels equal.

BLG have already reached two MSI finals, in 2023 and 2024, as well as a Worlds final in 2024. Several players who lived through those runs are still on the roster today, while others have already built similar international résumés with different teams: Chen "" Ze-Bin won MSI 2022 with Royal Never Give Up, Park “” Do-hyeon lifted Worlds with EDward Gaming in 2021, and Zhuo “” Ding claimed MSI 2023 with JD Gaming.

HLE, meanwhile, may be a younger organization at this level, but their roster is packed with proven winners too. Choi "" Woo-je is a two-time world champion with T1, Lee "" Min-hyung is a three-time world champion, Kim "" Geon-woo won Worlds in 2022 with DRX and is now one of the best midlaners in the LCK, while Seo “” Jin-hyeok also lifted MSI with JDG in 2023, just like Knight.

BLG enter the final as the favorite, both because of that accumulated experience and because of the momentum from their 3-1 win over HLE in the upper bracket. They also boast what can arguably be considered the best player in the world right now: Knight.

Knight leads the competition in several major categories, including KDA, CS per minute, gold per minute, kill participation, and even first blood presence, where his 33% rate stands out as one of the most impressive numbers of the event. His individual level has been extraordinary, but he is also backed by teammates who allow BLG to play at an elite level across the map.

His synergy with jungler Peng “” Li-Xun and support Luo “” Wen-Jun has been a major factor, while Viper’s botlane picks, now including Taliyah and Cassiopeia in the current mage botlane meta, helped define BLG’s latest win over HLE. Across the board, BLG’s players are among the very best in the world at their positions.

For HLE, momentum is also part of the story. Winning a long five-game series can provide a major confidence boost, and that is exactly what they achieved against LYON. After that loss to BLG, Kanavi admitted that his team had not handled the pressure well enough.

“We hesitated a lot more than we usually do. We were really frozen in terms of our play. I think that was the biggest thing,” he said. He added that if they meet BLG again in the final, the team will be ready to prepare properly and play more proactively from game one.

Even so, HLE may arrive with fewer tools after such a long series on Saturday, especially against a BLG side that has had the stronger overall tournament run. They still have the talent to cause an upset, but they will need to do it against a team chasing something no organization has ever achieved: the Golden Road, winning every major title in a single competitive year. As a reminder, the winner of the competition will automatically qualify for Worlds, as long as they qualify to their region’s playoffs in the Summer Split.