Top Esports became the fifth team to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship knockout stage, overtaking Bilibili Gaming for a 2-1 win in a fourth-round Swiss stage match on Thursday in Allen, Texas.
Top Esports prevailed in a showdown of teams with 2-1 records.
The day’s only other action was a Round 4 matchup of teams with 1-2 marks, and Karmine Corp swept CTBC Flying Oyster 2-0.
The Swiss stage runs through Saturday in Allen, with early-round matches consisting of a single map, while advancement and elimination matches are all best-of-three.
Half of the 16 Swiss-stage teams will qualify for the knockout stage, which gets underway on Tuesday and features a single-elimination bracket. The knockout stage, consisting of best-of-five matches, also will be played in Allen except for the grand final, which will be held at Barclays Center in New York on Nov. 14.
The championship team will receive $1 million from the event’s $5 million prize pool.
On Thursday, Bilibili Gaming took the opening match in 28 minutes on blue, but Top Esports recovered to notch a 38-minute victory on red and a 28-minute win on blue.
Lin “Creme” Jian led all-Chinese Top Esports with a 10-8-14 kill-death assist ratio. Another Chinese player, Peng “XUN” Lixun, paced Bilibili Gaming at 10-7-15.
Karmine Corp got past CTBC Flying Oyster in 28 minutes on blue and 37 minutes on red. South Korea’s Kang “kyeahoo” Yea-hoo propelled Karmine Corp with a 12-1-19 K-D-A ratio. Another South Korean, Han “Pout” In-woong, finished at 6-6-3 for CTBC Flying Oyster.
The Friday schedule:
–Round 4 low match (both teams 1-2): Team Liquid vs. LOS
–Round 4 low match (both teams 1-2): Hanwha Life vs. G2 Esports
League of Legends World Championship prize pool
1. $1 million
2. $800,000
3-4. $400,000
5-8. $300,000
9-11. $175,000
12-14. $125,000 — CTBC Flying Oyster, two teams TBD
15-16. $90,000 — Anyone’s Legend, Team Secret Whales
17. $50,000 — MVK Esports
18. $40,000 — FURIA
19. $30,000 — Cloud9
–Field Level Media
