9:44 AM ET
  • Emily RandESPN

After two exciting quarterfinal matchups in JD Gaming vs. Suning and Top Esports vs. Fnatic, the League of Legends World Championship returned to a quick 3-0 stomp, with G2 Esports defeating Gen.G in a match reminiscent of DAMWON Gaming's utter destruction of DRX in the first quarterfinals series.

G2 advance to face South Korean squad Damwon Gaming at 6 a.m. ET on Oct. 24 in a rematch of the 2019 worlds quarterfinal, while China's LoL Pro League contenders, Top Esports and Suning, will square off at 6 a.m. ET on Oct. 25 in the second semifinal.

Here are the highlights from Sunday's matches. Check out our recaps of the groups and play-in stages of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship for more information on previous matches.

G2 Esports 3, Gen.G 0

The end result of this series was always going to be an interesting semifinals narrative. Either we would receive the LoL Champions Korea summer finals we thought we would have between DAMWON Gaming and Gen.G, or there would be a rematch of last year's quarterfinals between G2 Esports and DAMWON. Since DAMWON players have been pretty vocal about G2 living somewhat rent-free in their heads despite their domestic success, it's great to see that we will end up getting this semifinals match in a week.

As for the games themselves, G2 looked much more prepared for the current metagame and brought their superior understanding of cross-map trading and mid-game wave management, skirmishing and lane assignments. Interestingly enough, G2 tend to make more mistakes early but overcome them almost immediately with a remarkably strong and intelligent mid game.

In this series, G2 were off to an excellent start from the first match where their pick composition was designed around Twisted Fate, Pantheon and Jhin. Gen.G were relegated to having to throw Taric in with their Kalista ultimate just to try to get a good 5v5 engage that their composition desperately needed. The series didn't improve for Gen.G after that, although they did show a few signs of life in Game 3, where bot laner Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk was visibly trying as hard as he could on Ezreal to at least drag his team to a fourth game.

The obvious player of the game was Rasmus "Caps" Winther, who amassed a 56 Kills + Assists in the series, the most of any player at worlds since 2015 KOO Tigers mid laner Lee "Kuro" Seo-haeng. His overall KDA for all three games was 14.

A fond farewell to: Gen.G

It's sad to see Gen.G go out like this, especially with South Korea's third seed in DRX leaving in a similar 3-0 fashion. One of the questions surrounding the three LCK teams at this year's world championship was whether the LCK had improved as a whole, or whether it was just DWG rising to become one of the world's best teams.

We now have that answer -- although it's somewhat skewed by the fact that DWG knocked out their LCK brethren in DRX -- and it's DWG who appear significantly ahead of the rest of their region.

Neither Gen.G nor G2 seemed particularly well-suited to the current meta going into this series -- certainly not as much as other teams like DWG, Fnatic and Suning. However, Gen.G didn't really seem to adjust their more standard, bot-lane-focused approach and play around jungler Kim "Clid" Tae-min in a similar way that Suning or Fnatic have played around Lê "SofM" Quang Duy and Oskar "Selfmade" Boderek respectively. They were also unable to pivot to the facilitator role that Top Esports' Hung "Karsa" Hao-Hsuan took on in TES' reverse sweep of Fnatic on Saturday.

Quotable

Despite G2's struggles this year, bot laner Luka "Perkz" Perković asserted that this G2 team is even stronger than last year's and 2018. He, like DAMWON, has been waiting for their rematch. Here's what he had to say in the post-game press conference.

"I'm not entirely sure how to tell them but I saw some interview with ShowMaker where he was talking a bit about how much he wants to beat G2 and how he wishes that we won against Gen.G so he doesn't care if there is one LCK team in the finals for sure he wants to beat us really badly. But I feel sorry for LCK that they will not have one LCK team in the finals."

Every game in a sentence

  • G2 Esports 1, Gen.G 0: Gen.G lock in a 5v5 composition but lack engage while G2 are able to play around that easily with globals to avoid fights.

  • G2 Esports 2, Gen.G 0: Gen.G try to pick a composition more like G2's, but G2 have a significantly stronger mid game and better skirmishing.

  • G2 Esports 3, Gen.G 0: Ruler tries his hardest to drag Gen.G to a fourth game, but this game is also almost entirely G2.

Top Esports 3, Fnatic 2

Top Esports' nail-biting 3-2 victory over Fnatic on Saturday in Shanghai became the first-ever reverse sweep in League of Legends World Championship history.

Here's how it happened, a look back at Fnatic's performance throughout worlds and a quick breakdown of each match of the historic series.

Although Top Esports were, and still are, a favorite to win the world championship as China's No. 1 seed, there should be a small shadow of doubt after this series as TES looked more disorganized than in the single-game group stage. Fnatic, meanwhile were visibly ramping up after a rocky start and slight meta misread. Once they became comfortable in the current meta, they looked unstoppable with strong Level 1's and focused drafts around jungler Oskar "Selfmade" Boderek as one of the team's primary carries.

In their first two games against TES, Fnatic had full control of the bot side of the map, continuously making plays after their first reset and ensuring that Martin "Rekkles" Larsson and Zdravets "Hylissang" Iliev Galabov were ahead of Yu "JackeyLove" Wen-Bo and Liang "Yuyanjia" Jia-Yuan. Once TES' bot lane collapsed, even with any advantages they may have been able to get in mid or top, TES struggled in teamfights and frequently took them without thought to setup.

TES started turning the series around when they put jungler Hung "Karsa" Hao-Hsuan on Lee Sin and Nidalee to make more plays in the early game. Even when their bot lane fell behind early, Karsa was able to make an impact elsewhere on the map to get other lanes, particularly Zhuo "Knight" Ding's mid lane, ahead. Once TES were making more proactive plays early, even with a scaling draft like they had in Game 5, they were able to take teamfights much better and adjust to how Fnatic wanted to play around Rekkles and Selfmade.

Perhaps the most impressive part of TES' victory is how they kept their cool, even after two disappointing losses to start the series.

A fond farewell to: Fnatic

Prior to this series, I had said that Fnatic was more well-suited to this meta because of the way they play around jungle and that they matched up well with TES because of how strong Hylissang is, while rookie Yuyanjia is in still developing as a support.

In their first two games Saturday, the Fnatic bot lane proved the latter point and showcased just how strong they were. Fnatic also had a strong understanding of when to make plays after resetting early to get themselves ahead, earning nearly all of the First Bloods in every single one of their matches. This Fnatic team grew significantly stronger as they learned how to better play around Selfmade this summer, and they should hold their heads high even in the face of this loss.

Quotable

After some tremendous bot lane performances with Hylissang, Rekkles was asked to reflect on his performances against TES and at this world championship. Here's what he had to say.

"I'm really happy how we were able to show, yet again, our strength as a duo on the international stage and I think it's something we've managed previous years too, but it's nice to see that we've still got it year after year so that part I'm happy about. But I think still, no one will really remember how we played today. I don't think it will be OK, in a way, to lose because of this. A loss is a loss, and a win is a win, so in a week from now or a month from now, I don't know when I'll be looking back at this, but I still think I'll feel very disappointed with what I managed to do today."

Every map in a sentence

  • Fnatic 1, Top Esports 0: Everyone will be talk about Bwipo's Singed, but it's Hylissang that makes the massive difference for Fnatic, both in the 2v2 and outside of lane.

  • Fnatic 2, Top Esports 0: Another game where Fnatic play significantly better around their bottom lane and Hylissang is stronger than Yuyanjia.

  • Top Esports 1, Fnatic 2: With Karsa taking over with Lee Sin and TES' bot lane doing better, TES are able to snowball their early lead despite greedy mid-game mistakes.

  • Top Esports 2, Fnatic 2: Although Fnatic continue their bot lane dominance, Karsa's Nidalee takes over the game, Knight accrues a significant advantage on Jayce, and 369 soaks up all of Fnatic's damage in teamfights.

  • Top Esports 3, Fnatic 2: Once again, Karsa's Lee Sin makes moves early, and Yuyanjia redeems himself for his earlier performances as TES' composition snowballs to a reverse-sweep victory.

Suning 3, JD Gaming 1

Another regional rivalry took center stage in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals on Friday. Following the repeat of the 2020 LoL Champions Korea summer finals on Thursday, Chinese squads JD Gaming and Suning faced off in an all-LoL Pro League showdown.

The results did not necessarily go as expected, with Suning not only besting JD Gaming 3-1 but doing so convincingly through strong teamfighting and skirmishes.

Unlike DAMWON Gaming's series against DRX, where the two teams had played each other recently and DAMWON quickly stomped their opponent 3-0, Suning had not met JD Gaming since the second week of the LPL summer split.

Back then, it was a JDG 2-0 that Suning arguably should have won, but Suning were still in the beginning stages of building the team that is currently on the worlds stage; JDG also had a good understanding of how to stop Suning with vision control and flanks from top laner Zhang "Zoom" Xing-Ran or mid laner Zeng "Yagao" Qi.

That approach was what was expected from this series as well. Despite the fact that Suning had arguably looked better in groups -- something that could also be attributed to not having DAMWON in their group -- and were well-suited to the current metagame, JDG presumably had the upper hand in this series.

They didn't.

Instead, we had the rare, shining moment where a much-lauded rookie player steps into the international spotlight and exceeds expectations in the best way. Most fans already knew of Suning bot laner Tang "huanfeng" Huan-Feng's incredible journey to get to worlds thanks to an interview by the LPL broadcast team, but on Friday, he fully embraced his role as the LPL's best up-and-coming bot laner.

Huanfeng's Jhin in particular was remarkable, and he cemented his place as a king among Jhin enthusiasts with an ultimate from inside JDG's base during Game 2 that went viral on multiple social media platforms.

Suning's win was also a testament to jungler Lê "SofM" Quang Duy and support Hu "SwordArt" Shuo-Chieh's veteran leadership on the team, something that rookie top laner Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin has cited as the reason why Suning are such a strong squad right now.

A fond farewell to: JD Gaming

For the majority of the year, JDG were one of, if not the LPL's best teams. They were smart, well-coordinated, drafted around their players' obvious strengths and weaknesses, and supplemented this with remarkable 5v5 teamfighting.

Even in their quarterfinals loss to Suning, there were several times where JDG's group engages were clearly better, and if they had a lead (especially in Game 3, which was pretty much over for JDG once Bin's Gangplank got a Level 1 double-kill and took a Sheen to the top lane) at those times, they would have won those fights.

Although they won't be moving on at worlds this year, 2020 JDG were a special team to watch and should still be remembered as one of the LPL's best.

Quotable

Although huanfeng was the star of Suning on Friday, SwordArt's efforts in helping lead this team and his direct involvement in huanfeng's improvement should never be overlooked, especially since this is the furthest he has gone at worlds in his own career. The support had this to say about huanfeng's growth.

"Huanfeng is a very hard-working player, and I think he made a lot of improvements in communications and also in terms of our synergy. Now he really immerses himself in the whole team. I don't think we are able to provide that much help, but he can always carry the game. I think maybe not now, but later in some moment, I believe that huanfeng will become a really good player that will be memorable for all."

Every game in a sentence

  • JD Gaming 1, Suning 0: Although Suning have a scaling advantage, Yagao's Zoe and Zoom's Renekton take over the mid-game.

  • Suning 1, JD Gaming 1: Suning's scaling works out well here while Yagao is unable to have an impact on Galio, and huanfeng's Jhin steps into the spotlight.

  • Suning 2, JD Gaming 1: This game is over from Level 1, when Bin's Gangplank gets a double kill and Sheen to start the laning phase.

  • Suning 3, JD Gaming 1: JDG take an early lead, but stronger dragon setups and huanfeng's Jhin once again lead Suning to victory.

DAMWON Gaming 3, DRX 0

Quarterfinals got underway at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship on Thursday. The first series was a rematch of the 2020 LoL Champions Korea final between DAMWON Gaming and DRX that went in the exact same way that first matchup did: a 3-0 sweep for DAMWON.

The moment DRX were drawn against DAMWON Gaming, they were already considered out of the tournament.

We had already seen what DRX could do against DAMWON in their summer finals best-of-five ,and it wasn't much. DAMWON were not only able to best DRX individually, but more importantly had much stronger objective setups and trading across the map. DRX had, however, looked a bit more cohesive in the group stage, particularly in their games against LoL Pro League No. 1 seed Top Esports.

Although Top Esports won both of those games due to stronger teamfighting, there was hope for DRX. Despite the team's reliance on mid laner Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon and a back injury hindering bot laner Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu, the team seemed like it might have improved enough to give DAMWON more trouble than they were able to in that quick summer final sweep.

I had hoped to say that this series wouldn't play out as expected -- that DRX would be able to take at least a game off of DAMWON. They could not. The series ended in similar 100-minute fashion, with DAMWON too strong to allow DRX even one game. DRX came closest in Game 2, but a clutch engage from DWG top laner Jang "Nuguri" Ha-gwon on Ornn flipped the game back into DAMWON's favor, and they didn't give DRX any advantages afterwards.

DAMWON will now go on to the semifinals to face either the team that knocked them out of worlds in 2019, G2 Esports, or another fellow South Korean squad in Gen.G. DAMWON should be favored in both matchups with how strong they've looked at this tournament.

A fond farewell to: DRX

For most of the 2020 LCK season, DRX were a fun team to watch and always near the top of the standings. They had interesting drafts (which sometimes hurt them more than they helped), and the continued evolution of Chovy was one of the highlights of the season. In 2020, the mid laner grew from a 1v1 outplay king who somewhat relied on favorable matchups from his team to a legitimate team player with much stronger teamfighting skill and engage sense, making DRX a legitimate threat against any team not named DAMWON.

DRX have two standout young players that people watch going into 2021, too, despite some rough performances Thursday. Jungler Hong "Pyosik" Chang-hyeon and, in particular, rookie support Ryu "Keria" Min-seok have a lot of potential going forward in future LCK seasons.

The saddest part of DRX's exit: The revelation about Deft's back injury. The bot laner's been one of the best in the world and competed professionally since 2013. He hasn't mentioned retiring, but given the physical setback and length of his pro career, we'll hope that this isn't the last time we see Deft in an international showdown.

Quotable

DRX coach Kim "cvMax" Dae-ho reflected on the season after Thursday's sweep, giving credit to both Chovy and Deft for helping coach the team.

"Thanks to Chovy and Deft, the core players, Keria, Pyosik, and Doran were able to soak in all of the game knowledge and experience," cvMax said via a translator. "Also, Chovy and Deft were even coaching better than the real coaches. Maybe they were the realistic coaches of our team leading the team so well. I also learned so much by watching them doing feedback for the players. Compared to myself in Griffin and this year, I think I've become better at coaching, and it's all from Deft."

Every game in a sentence

  • DAMWON Gaming 1, DRX 0: DRX are unable to get their Caitlyn ahead early and DWG have stronger objective setups overall, even when it looked for a short moment like DRX would be able to poke them down in the mid game.

  • DAMWON Gaming 2, DRX 0: A big teamfight in mid where Nuguri controls the entire fight with Ornn makes the difference for DWG.

  • DAMWON Gaming 3, DRX 0: Another limited-to-no-engage composition harms DRX as DAMWON are easily able to jump on them and, despite Doran's Vladimir doing relatively well early in top lane, beat DRX in the mid game.