Worlds 2024: LPL madness as LNG and WBG fight for semifinals slot

Four teams from the Chinese League of Legends Pro League (LPL) region made it to the quarterfinals of the League of Legends 2024 World Championship (LoL Worlds 2024), so some inter-region matches are surely inevitable. For the first game of Worlds 2024 quarterfinals, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds LNG Esports and Weibo Gaming clash for a semifinals slot. Check out the LNG vs WBG recap in Worlds 2024 here.

LNG Esports and Weibo Gaming opened the Worlds 2024 knockout stage with a classic. Coming from the same region, these two have clashed many times this year alone.

A failed dive by LNG in the bot lane ended in a two for two. This was Weibo-favored — seeing as they were a man down when the dive began.

Zika's Renekton could not find value in the early game, but LNG's bot lane remained ahead.

LNG took the chance to rout Weibo after winning over the first wave of Voidgrubs. Zika, and the rest of LNG, regained their footing after a miserable early game. The two teams stayed neck-and-neck, though — even after a few scuffles.

Weibo went for their third Dragon of the game, but they misplayed the fight and handed over three kills and a tower. Nocturne's Paranoia was exactly its namesake for Weibo. Their lack of damage combined with the confusion that the darkness inflicted meant that they could not stop the single-target lockdown from LNG.

Avoiding a fight, WBG elected to ditch the Hextech Soul in favor of taking Baron Nashor. This macro decision broke LNG's ankles.

LNG attempted to stop the Baron push, but four players fell in the ensuing fight. GALA, as the sole remaining member of LNG, couldn’t hold the defense. Weibo closed out Game 1 in 31 minutes.

The same bot lane dive happened, but this time, it was initiated by Weibo. Nobody died, but a re-gank by LNG secured them two kills.

LNG had a monopoly over the early game, which was a stark difference from the previous game. Even when Weibo forced to get the second Drake of the game, LNG made them pay the price of several kills.

Several fights occurred, but LNG stayed ahead. One particularly bad fight for WBG cemented their opposition's lead.

Mirroring Game 1, Weibo whisked away the Baron once again and took the fight afterward. They attempted to end the game with this Baron buff, but they overstayed their welcome and most of Weibo fell inside LNG's base. LNG used this window to claim Mountain Soul.

LNG kept punishing Weibo. They took Baron, and when WBG stepped up to contest the Elder Dragon, LNG evened out the series.

The third game opened with a fiesta, which ended up heavily in Zika's favor. The player walked out with two kills.

This wasn't enough, though. Xiaohu began to amass kills to pull Weibo ahead thanks to a big Shockwave.

Every play went Weibo's way with — no little thanks to their fed Orianna. LNG somehow snuck the Baron, found a fight afterwards, and took the lead for the first time in over a minute.

From this point, everything went LNG's way. They broke into WBG's base and took back the lead for most lanes except mid and support.

To regain control of the game, Weibo forced a Baron hit. Light glided all around LNG and sustained past the engages thrown at him. LNG's burst comp ran out of gas and Weibo wiped them in the long fight. WBG once again took the upper hand in the series 2-1.

This was a relatively slow game, especially with the absence of a bot dive despite the laneswap. First blood was spilled over the first wave of Voidgrubs, with Weibo picking up two kills.

They snowballed this lead, especially Xiaohu and Light. They steamrolled LNG and, at 20 minutes, they had the biggest lead of the entire series. Granted, this was only about 4,000, but the series was really close.

Weibo kept growing this lead to almost 10,000 gold ahead of LNG by the time they took Baron.

Scout's Yone thwarted the Weibo push momentarily with a Synapse-worthy triple kill, but their adversaries were too far ahead. Weibo Gaming defied expectations, and with this win, established themselves as a top-four team in Worlds 2024.

The LoL Worlds 2024 event continues with three more Quarterfinal matches to go. Stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates.