Asian Games 2023: South Korea sweep China in League of Legends semifinals
With their victory over China, South Korea are now the overwhelming favourites to claim the gold medal for League of Legends.
Things have taken an exciting turn at the League of Legends (LoL) medal event at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Two LoL powerhouse nations, China and South Korea, went head-to-head in a star-studded semifinal match that ended with South Korea defeating China in a 2-0 sweep.
China were one of the teams that were guaranteed a Playoffs spot through the Road to Asian Games qualifiers, which took place back in June. Meanwhile, South Korea qualified through the Group Stage after sweeping Group A.
Despite being the most anticipated matchup, South Korea and China were denied the opportunity to face each other in the gold medal match due to the group stage draw.
How South Korea beat China
In the first game, both teams were equally matched in gold and exp in the laning phase. However, the South Korean team’s jungler, Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok was timely in his ganks and map rotation, helping the team’s AD Carry, Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk, to get fed early with three kills.
China, on the other hand, focused on taking objectives and slowly peeling their opponent’s turrets. However, the aggression of the South Korean team kept them from progressing further, with Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon’s Azir and Ruler’s Kaisa picking off members of the Chinese team in skirmishes and team fights.
Team South Korea found an opportunity to open up China’s mid lane after winning a team fight, which allowed them to open up China’s base and eventually destroy Chinese Nexus in 29 minutes with a 12-5 kill lead.
China took the blue side in the second game and went for a double-AD carry team composition, picking Tristana in the mid lane and Jinx in the bottom lane, along with the currently popular Rell for Support.
Meanwhile, the Korean team went for beefier team composition, with Jax in the top lane and more firepower in Zeri in the bottom lane.
The Chinese team were aggressive in the first half of the game, taking four kills and doing their best to keep their early gold lead against South Korea.
However, South Korea found an opportunity to catch up in a fight at the Dragon pit, where they were able to take both the dragon and three kills against the Chinese team.
The South Korean team then continued to try to find opportunities to pressure their Chinese opponents and eventually take the gold lead. This allowed them to rotate across the map freely, and gain better vision control, and box out the Chinese team from bigger objectives like the Baron.
The Chinese team, on the other hand, did their best to find opportunities for a comeback. However, the South Korean’s vision control on the map was so deep that it made it difficult for the Chinese to find flanks.
China once again tried to contest the Elder Dragon but were swept in a clean ace by the Korean team at the 36-minute mark. This gave the South Koreans the chance to finally finish all of China’s inhibitor turrets and destroy China’s Nexus, allowing them to take the second game and win the series with an 18-6 kill lead.
South Korea will be facing the winners of the semi-final match between Vietnam and Chinese Taipei at the gold medal event on Friday (29 September) at 7pm, Singapore Time.
Meanwhile, China will still be competing against the losing team of the semi-final match between Vietnam and Chinese Taipei at the bronze medal match on the same day at 2pm, Singapore Time.
Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.
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