EDward Gaming vs Gen.G: Last Chinese team to leave the tournament

Sunday, October 31, will be the second semifinal game day of the decisive knockout stage of the LoL World Championship 2021. EDward Gaming and Gen.G. will battle it out for the grand final.

World Championship 2021 is the main tournament of the year in the eSports discipline League of Legends. The 2021 edition of the premier international LAN tournament takes place in Iceland and features 22 teams from around the world. The tournament takes place from October 05 to November 06, 2021, and has a prize pool of $2,225,000.

EDward Gaming is a Chinese eSports organisation mainly known for their success in League of Legends.

The year 2021 was a return to the top of the LPL for the team. In the spring of 2021, the boys finished 3rd in the Chinese championship, losing 2-3 to future champions Royal Never Give Up. There were no changes to the team between the two splits, and in the summer of 2021, they won the LPL Championship, defeating FunPlus Phoenix 3-1 in the final, winning the first LPL title since the 2017 summer split and a direct invite to Worlds 2021.

The group stage started well for the Chinese. They led Group B for a long time before losing two games on the final game day to the 100 Thieves and T1 teams and thereby missing out on 1st place in the group, which foreshadowed the possibility of a Chinese derby already in the first stage of the playoffs.

The bookmakers thought the Chinese team was the favourite to win the semifinals against RNG. Even though it was the toughest of the quarterfinal bouts, it ended successfully for EDward Gaming. The Chinese have been unimpressive throughout the tournament, with the LPL teams being unprepared for the main international start of the year.

Gen.G Esports is a professional international eSports organisation. Gen.G is currently ranked 6th in Forbes’ 2020 list of the world’s most valuable eSports companies, formerly known as KSV eSports.

The KSV League of Legends team was formed on November 30, 2017, by acquiring Samsung Esports, which included 2017 world champions Samsung Galaxy. On August 27, 2020, Gen.G was announced as one of 10 selected teams under the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) franchise.

The team has never taken the LCK championship since Gen.G has played in the Korean championship. The highest ranking was 2nd place at the 2020 and 2021 Spring Splits. The boys finished 3rd in the summer tournament in 2021, so all in all, they’ve had a good year, with only a good performance at Worlds 2021 to back it up. This is the third Worlds in the history of this team. They failed the first one. That was in 2018, and they got a place 13-16. The second tournament came for the Koreans in 2020 and turned out quite well, placing 5-8, the team can be pleased with themselves.

The group stage began with a game against the Chinese LNG Esports, who wiped them off the map without giving them even a few frags. The victory was clearly in the levels, not a single mistake and an important 1-0 victory.

The second game was a real brawl, with the Koreans sensationally losing to MAD Lions (0-1). The intrigue in Group D was just incredible. Everyone confidently opposed the Koreans, but they secured a guaranteed place in the playoffs, and for first place, they fought with MAD Lions, with whom there was not much trouble.

The Americans from C9 were in the playoffs and had to leave the tournament after the quarterfinals, which they did. The Koreans quietly won 3-0 and, in terms of the level of play, are worthy of reaching this grand final.

Bookmakers, for some reason, do not believe in the Korean team, giving big odds on a successful outcome for Gen.G. Even if the Chinese can reach the final in their current form, the battle will be tight, which means a handicap +1.5 on the Gen.G team maps for 1.85 should go well.

Neither team will go out of this semifinal without a fight, which means I wouldn’t be surprised to see all five maps in this clash; odds on Total Over 4.5 maps is 2.75.