BLG defeated the other Demacia Cup darkhorse TT Gaming to raise the trophy
Bilibili Gaming's Path to the Demacia Cup
Bilbili Gaming is the 2022 Demacia Cup champion, winning the trophy in a heated rematch against ThunderTalk Gaming.
The Demacia Cup is the biggest pro LoL event in the off-season, bringing the Chinese pro teams and many of the best semi-professional and amateur teams together. This year, we already saw several amazing upsets and standout plays in its opening stages, which even saw a streamer team break into the top 8. While admittedly some of that was due to several teams being heavily affected by the COVID-19 and having to bow out or play with substitutes, there was still some amazing League of Legends.
With the teams down to 8 for the playoffs, there were still many unanswered questions. Could the streamers of Huya MOJ serve yet another upset after sweeping FunPlus Phoenix? Would one of the teams coming from the second stage win the tournament, or would one of the top 4 teams of the summer raise the trophy? As it turns out, there were still some surprises going on, and the two finalists - Bilibili Gaming and Thundetalk Gaming - rehashed their fight from the previous stage in a five-game finals series after besting some of LPL’s Worlds representatives along the way.
The way to the Finals
The first stage of playoffs saw Bilibili, who made it to the top 5 despite losing to ThunderTalk Gaming in the previous stage due to TOP Esports forfeiting, show they belonged in the playoff with a decisive 3-0 series against Invictus Gaming. In the first match featuring a LPL Worlds seed, Anyone’s Legend got cleanly swept by Royals Never Give Up. The streamers of Huya MOJ made us all excited by taking the first game against EDward Gaming, winning multiple skirmishes and moving better on the map, but they ended up being outclassed and losing the series 1:3 after faling behind early in the following games. The last match saw TT Gaming face off against JDG Gaming. The underdogsBLG defeated the other Demacia Cup darkhorse TT Gaming to raise the trophyonce more rose up to the challenge, winning the series 3-0 to secure their semifinals spot.
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In the first semifinal series, Bilibili had to overcome a strong RNG team that, despite using several substitute players, was still able to exert a lot of early pressure. In the first two series, BLG had to play from behind, but good map movement and some clutch teamfights let them turn the game around. By game three, they were fully in control and after getting the better start they secured an early infernal soul and ground down the struggling RNG to get their spot in the finals.
ThunderTalk Gaming, meanwhile, had a flying start against EDG, taking over the first game after snowballing the lead they got after a botlane outplay. A risky Baron in game 2 cost them what looked like a won game, but they quickly recovered with a very clean third game. In the next one, EDG had a good early game but several great TT flanks turned the game around for a 3-1 win for the underdogs.
A Brawl of a Final
The clash between BLG and TT was the most exciting series in the second one and the rematch did not disappoint. The opening game saw both teams land blows in several close fights, but eventually Tang "huanfeng" Huan-Feng’s Zeri took over the teamfights to give TT first blood in the series. Bilibili replied in the next game, however, and their opponents had no answer to Zeng "Yagao" Qi’s Galio taunts and the rampaging Aatrox piloted by Chen "Bin" Ze-Bin as they secured a clear win.
The two teams each got a one-sided win in the next two games, first TT getting to match point with a very strong mid and jungle synergy and then BLG punishing their early aggression and snowballing hard, getting us to game five. In it, despite losing the first blood Bilibili won several skirmishes, often due to long-range Ashe ults by support Luo "ON" Wen-Jun. While the game remained close at first, BLG’s dragon advantage eventually gave them an early infernal soul. With it they punished TT hard for some overly aggressive engages, took over the game and secured the win to avenge their loss in the previous stage in the best way possible.
Read More:
- Demacia Cup 2022: Livestream, Teams, Schedule & More
- LPL Players Likely Won't Be Playing Korean Solo Queue in 2023
- Streamer Team makes it to Demacia Cup Playoffs
Despite the disruptions and substitutions forced by COVID-19, the Demacia Cup was a great showcase of the best LPL players. After bolstering their roster with several former Weibo players, Bilibili is looking set to to challenge for the top spots in 2023!