Gen.G Esports edged Anyone’s Legend 3-2 on Friday, advancing to the upper-bracket final in the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational at Vancouver.
Lower-bracket action also began on Friday with FlyQuest thrashing G2 Esports 3-0.
The $2 million event began with two teams from each League of Legends region: China, Korea, Pacific, the Americas and Europe-Middle East-Africa.
Gen.G Esports, T1, Anyone’s Legend, CTBC Flying Oyster, FlyQuest and KOI were seeded directly into the bracket stage. The other four teams — Bilibili Gaming, FURIA, G2 Esports and GAM Esports — battled in the play-in stage for the final two bracket-stage berths that went to Bilibili and G2.
All matches in the play-in and the double-elimination bracket stage are best-of-five. The winner of the grand final on July 12 will earn $500,000 and a spot in the $5 million League of Legends World Championship, to be played this fall in China.
On Friday, Anyone’s Legend opened with a 27-minute win on blue. Gen.G responded with a 29-minute victory on blue and a 34-minute triumph on red. Anyone’s Legend pushed the match to the limit with 31-minute win on blue before Gen.G captured the last map in 29 minutes on blue.
Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk paced all-South Korea Gen.G with a 19/10/38 kill/death/assist ratio. China’s Cui “Shanks” Xiaojun wound up at 16/11/27 for Anyone’s Legend.
FlyQuest downed G2 Esports in 39 minutes on blue, 39 minutes on red and 29 minutes on blue. Poland’s Kacper “Inspired” Sloma led FlyQuest with a 20/2/20 K/D/A ratio. Denmark’s Rasmus “Caps” Winther finished at 9/8/11 for G2.
In the last upper-bracket second-round match, T1 will face off with Bilibili Gaming on Saturday, with the winner to go up against Gen.G on Wednesday.
CTBC Flying Oyster will oppose KOI on Saturday in the lower-bracket first round as they vie for the right to face Anyone’s Legend on Tuesday.
The T1-Bilibili loser will meet FlyQuest in the lower bracket second round on Monday.
League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational prize pool:
1. $500,000, berth in League of Legends World Championship
2. $300,000
3. $240,000
4. $200,000
5-6. $160,000
7-8. $130,000 — G2 Esports, one team TBD
9. $100,000 — GAM Esports
10. $80,000 — FURIA
–Field Level Media
