IG turn the tables on Top Esports to reach the Worlds semifinals

Invictus Gaming knocked Top Esports out of the Worlds quarterfinals on Tuesday in Allen, Texas, and reached the semifinals for the first time since 2019. The 3-1 score reversed their LPL Regional Finals series in September, which TES won 3-1.

Wei takes over after the long game

IG set the tone in the opener. TES caught Meiko’s Nautilus and Rookie’s Syndra in a jungle fight around 15 minutes, but TheShy teleported in on Gnar, and with JiaQi on Kai’Sa, IG turned the fight into an ace and built a lead of more than 10,000 gold.

Top Esports answered with the longest game of the night, at 47 minutes. During that game Polymarket had TES below 20%. TES lost a big teamfight late, but 369 on Renekton then took down JiaQi and TheShy, and TES won the last fight to tie the series.

From there the series belonged to Wei.

On Jayce in game three he got ahead with ganks in mid and bottom, and while TES worked to stop JiaQi’s Zeri, he took over the sieges and teamfights. In game four he moved to Naafiri, and his early top-lane ganks cost 369’s Aatrox two deaths. IG took Baron and the dragon soul before they closed out the series.

The September series that sent IG the long way

The two LPL teams had already met twice in September. IG won 3-2 in the Split 3 playoffs on Sep 5, which ended TES’s chase for the split title. TES replied in the Regional Finals on Sep 17: they lost the first game, won the next three and took China’s third Worlds seed.

That sent IG through the lower bracket, where a 3-1 win against JD Gaming gave them the LPL’s fourth and last spot. Earlier, IG had dropped into the Nirvana Group, the LPL’s lower group for Split 3. TheShy, who won Worlds with IG and Rookie in 2018, came back from a break during that split to keep a promise to the club’s CEO.

Asked by Inven Global what had changed since the loss to TES, TheShy said:

Back then, to be honest, I don’t think our team was playing that well. Of course, there were things we did well, but we had many shortcomings, and I wasn’t fully satisfied with my own performance either. But coming to Worlds and going through the practice process changed a lot of things.

What’s next for Invictus Gaming

IG play the winner of Gen.G vs LYON in a best-of-five semifinal. One more series win would put the 2018 champions in their first Worlds final since that title.