EDG slay Gen.G, setting up LCK vs LPL Worlds Finals

The longstanding rivalry between the LCK and the LPL will get yet another chapter, now that the two Worlds 2021 finalists have been defined, following a tense best-of-five series between EDward Gaming and Gen.G.

Although many favoured EDward Gaming's LPL championship-winning squad, Gen.G arrived to semifinal match with the momentum.

As in the series from yesterday between DWG KIA and T1, this semifinal match offered up some very close games. EDG's Park “Viper” Do-hyeon and Tian "Meiko" Ye were the standouts in Game 1, the duo impressing thanks to their powerful Lucian-Nami combination.

Gen.G showed initiative at all times taking some kill exchanges, but as the game progressed, EDG's gold advantage and control of objectives ended up being decisive, since after forcing a fight for the Elder Dragon, a backdoor by Li "Flandre" Xuan-Jun and Lee "Scout" Ye-chan helped the team score their first point.

Despite this, Gen.G managed to recover in Game 2, controlling most of the match. Most impactful, Kim “Rascal” Kwang-hee, and Kim “Clid ”Tae-min who, in addition to taking most of the neutral targets, managed to steal a Baron that allowed them to tie the score with an ace.

Maintaining this momentum, Gen.G started Game 3 aggressively by taking both early kills and a Herald buff, allowing them to build an advantage as they progressed further and further across the map.

After 25 minutes, the pace of the game became more passive, with only some exchanges and structure defences, but everything changed when after a Baron secured by Gen.G, and some kills and Dragon Soul in favour of EDG, the LCK squad caught their opponents badly, eliminating almost all of them, and destroying their nexus for the second time.

However, EDG was able to hold their ground and in the fourth game, they started strongly taking several kills and a Herald before the 20th minute, which culminated in a resounding stomp that ended with almost 15 K gold difference, taking the series to a fifth game.

Gen.G were clearly rattled, trying to force several fights during the final game, but EDG's focus and composition were too much as they sent the Korean team packing and booked their place in the final.

Thus, EDward Gaming not only managed to qualify for the first time in their history to the Worlds Finals, but now they will have the opportunity to repeat what RNG achieved during MSI 2021, by facing the current world champion for the right to be the best team in the world.

But this won’t be easy, since they have to face one of the greatest threats that seek to cement their legacy, to become a new dynasty.

The 2021 League of Legends World Championship Finals are scheduled to take place next Saturday at 6 am CT / 12 pm BST.

• Read more: Worlds 2021 DK ShowMaker: “I think EDG are very good right now”

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Featured image courtesy of Riot Games and Getty Images.