All eight LPL quarterfinalists are confirmed, Rookie narrowly escapes elimination! The Phoenix King suffers a setback, knocked out in the final match.

Greetings to all LPL viewers and League of Legends summoners, welcome to Tianxia Game Report.

Yesterday was the last competition day of the Knights' Path stage in the LPL. On this day, both major teams from the Phoenix group were knocked out, unable to complete their comeback, while WE from the Resolute group and IG from the Ascend group advanced successfully.

With this, the top eight teams of the first LPL split are fully determined.

The Phoenix King stumbles, eliminated in the final match.

Yesterday’s two matches were quite eventful. First, the game between LNG and WE drew a lot of attention. Let me briefly explain these two teams’ situations: WE ranked second in the Resolute group, and in the earlier Knights' Path matches against TES, they fought hard in a five-game series but ultimately lost.

Although TES ranked last in the Ascend group, they have defeated strong teams before, so taking them to five games carries significant weight. Meanwhile, NIP, who share the same points as WE and lead the Resolute group, swept IG 3-0.

Then there’s our “Phoenix King” LNG, who achieved a perfect 6-0 record in the Phoenix group, dominating their opponents. With Korean imports in jungle and mid, many fans expected them to advance to the Ascend group.

This made the clash between LNG and WE especially interesting.

However, in yesterday’s matches, LNG lost their lead multiple times to WE due to many mistakes. Although they won the third game to narrow the score, crucial problems reappeared in the fourth game. Jungler Croco’s mantis was instantly killed by Akali in a solo jungle duel, leading to a devastating loss and LNG’s elimination in the final match.

All eight quarterfinalists are set, Rookie narrowly avoids elimination.

LNG’s match against WE resembled the previous EDG versus OMG matchup, where early and mid-game leads were established but many comeback plays by the opponents resulted in losing the BO5 series.

The subsequent match between IG and OMG, however, was completely one-sided.

IG finally regained form and swept OMG 3-0 to advance. Rookie escaped elimination because if IG had lost this match, as an ancient LPL powerhouse and championship club, they would have dropped into the Phoenix group. Falling into the Phoenix group in the second split would likely ruin their season, making good results nearly impossible.

Honestly, despite the 3-0 final score, from a pre-match perspective, this IG game was quite dangerous. Most viewers expected IG to lose because OMG had defeated EDG in the previous round, and EDG had the same record as WE and NIP in the Resolute group. OMG’s bottom lane star Starry easily outperformed Leave in lane matchups.

However, in this round, OMG’s players mostly underperformed. Even with Soboro, a nearly zero-impact top laner for IG, they were crushed by their opponents.

Finally, the eight LPL quarterfinal teams are AL, BLG, JDG, WBG, TES, NIP, IG, and WE.

Quarterfinal matchups announced, BLG does not pick IG.

After the Knights' Path matches concluded, an on-site team selection ceremony was held. The top four teams picked their first-round playoff opponents in ranking order. AL chose WE first, BLG went second and surprisingly did not pick IG, opting instead for NIP, who had defeated IG.

WBG selected IG, and JDG finally chose TES as their opponent.

Among these four choices, the most surprising was BLG’s decision to pick NIP over IG. The reason behind this is unclear. Personally, I think NIP’s jungler Guwon and bottom lane duo have been performing very well, making their matchup against BLG something to look forward to and potentially troublesome for BLG.

Other group matchups seem less suspenseful. Overall, this first split’s playoffs have fewer highlights compared to previous years—arguably the lowest in history. The gap between strong and weak teams is quite large, and there are no truly top-tier teams or many star players to follow. It’s expected that the first-round viewership will be low, with excitement rising only in the winners’ bracket, semifinals, and finals to reach a decent level of entertainment.