BLG’s ‘Viper’ Park Do-hyeon. Courtesy of Riot Games

In a showdown for pride between the LCK (Korea) and the LPL (China), the LPL came out on top. Bilibili Gaming (BLG), the LPL’s No. 1 seed, defeated Hanwha Life Esports, the LCK’s No. 1 seed, to reach the 2026 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) final.

On the 9th at the DCC Daejeon Convention Center in Daejeon, BLG beat Hanwha Life 3-1 in sets in the 2026 MSI winners’ bracket Round 3. With this win, BLG advanced to the final scheduled for the 12th. Hanwha Life, meanwhile, fell to the lower bracket and on the 11th will play a do-or-die match for the last finals ticket against the winner of the LCS’s LYON vs. the LEC’s G2.

Games 1 and 2 were crushing defeats that made their No. 1 LCK seed look meaningless.

Just three minutes into Game 1, at blue buff, Hanwha Life lost both ‘Kanavi’ Seo Jin-hyeok and ‘Delight’ Yoo Hwan-joong. They kept donating kills as the gap widened; by around 21 minutes the kill score had ballooned to 2-18, and they surrendered the set in a one-sided game after 25 minutes.

Hanwha Life’s ‘Zeka’ Kim Geon-woo. Courtesy of Riot Games

Game 2 was the same. Hanwha Life invested four ban cards into the support role, but after BLG’s support ‘On’ Luo Wen-jun locked in Leona and dictated the action, they dropped Game 2 in under 30 minutes. The kill score was 2-25 in Game 1 and 6-24 in Game 2.

With their backs against the wall, Hanwha Life finally struck back in Game 3. ‘Zeus’ Choi Woo-je on Dr. Mundo and ‘Zeka’ Kim Geon-woo on Viktor delivered brilliant carries. Choi posted 5 kills·5 assists, and Kim had 4 kills·5 assists; together they finished with no deaths. Hanwha Life took Game 3 in 31:22 and began the chase.

But that was as far as it went. BLG’s mid laner ‘Knight’ Zhuo Ding, who had been completely outplayed by Kim in Game 3, picked Orianna and kept detonating his ultimate, ‘Shockwave’, at every pivotal moment, steering teamfights to victory. With Zhuo recording a monstrous 7 kills·15 assists with no deaths, BLG won a huge fight around blue at about 37 minutes, picked off four members except for Lee Min-hyeong, then went straight into Hanwha Life’s base, destroyed the Nexus, and ended the game.

Courtesy of Riot Games

Courtesy of Riot Games