Top Esports stun BLG to reach Worlds 2026 quarterfinals

Top Esports defeated Bilibili Gaming 2-1 on Thursday, October 29, in Round 4 of the League of Legends World Championship Swiss Stage. The win gave Top Esports a 3-1 record and secured its place in the quarterfinals.

Bilibili Gaming fell to 2-2 and must win its final Swiss Stage series on Saturday, October 31, to advance. The teams entered the match with 2-1 records, so the winner would qualify for the quarterfinals while the loser would remain in contention.

Bilibili Gaming was favored before the series, receiving nearly 80% of predictions on the match page. It had also beaten Top Esports 2-0 in the teams’ most recent meeting during LPL Split 3.

Top Esports began Worlds with a substitute top laner. Cheng “ZUIAN” Zi-Hao could not travel to the United States because of visa issues, so veteran Bai “369” Jia-Hao returned to the starting lineup. He had been on the bench and had not played an official match since April.

Both Chinese teams lost their opening Swiss Stage matches before recovering. Top Esports then defeated Anyone’s Legend and G2 Esports, while Bilibili Gaming beat Team Liquid and Karmine Corp.

Karmine Corp defeated CTBC Flying Oyster 2-0 in the other Round 4 series. The result improved Karmine Corp’s record to 2-2 and eliminated CTBC Flying Oyster, which finished the tournament at 1-3.

Karmine Corp won the first game in 27 minutes and 35 seconds with a 19-3 kill advantage. CTBC Flying Oyster controlled much of the second game and built a lead of about 4,500 gold before Karmine Corp began to close the gap in teamfights.

The game was interrupted by several technical pauses at about the 25-minute mark after CTBC Flying Oyster reported a possible equipment problem. Chinese-language reports described five pauses and mentioned a possible issue that prevented players from purchasing items. The reported cause was not independently confirmed. One pause lasted nearly 30 minutes, during which players left their seats while officials worked to restart the game.

Karmine Corp top laner Kim “Canna” Chang-dong described the stoppage as longer than expected. “Riot gave us permission to discuss the game during that time, so refocusing once play resumed wasn’t much of a problem,” he said in a post-series interview.

CTBC Flying Oyster secured Dragon Soul after play resumed but could not close out the game. Karmine Corp won several fights, took Baron Nashor and completed the comeback after a fight around Elder Dragon.

Swiss Stage Round 4 continues Friday, October 30, with Team Liquid facing LOS and Hanwha Life Esports playing G2 Esports. Both series feature teams with 1-2 records. The winners will advance to the final Swiss Stage round at 2-2, while the losers will be eliminated.

The three remaining quarterfinal places will be decided in the 2-2 matches on Saturday, October 31. Pairings will be set after Friday’s matches.

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