China won their third international tournament victory this year with a gold medal finish at the 2018 Asian Games—but it wasn’t easy.
China came into the Asian Games’ main event as East Asia’s third seed after falling to both the Republic of Korea and Chinese Taipei in the regional qualifiers. Placed in the same group as Korea in the main event, China advanced to the Asian Games’ playoffs with a match record of 4-2—with those two losses both coming against Korea.
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But in the playoffs China redeemed themselves, beating Chinese Taipei in the semifinals, and later Korea in the finals, dropping only a single game in both playoff series.
Although China ultimately defeated Korea in the finals 3-1, the series was quite back-and-forth. Both China and Korea were relentless in finding even the slightest of advantages, whether it be an extra Elemental Drake or turret. This relentlessness from Korea and China led to exciting high level teamfights.
What gave China enough of an edge to beat their Korean counterparts was their AD carry, Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao. Arguably the best player in the world currently, Uzi was unstoppable against Korea. Uzi had total control over Korean AD carry Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk, with the help of his jungler and support. And come teamfights, it was more often than not a Xayah featherstorm from Uzi which allowed China to almost ace the Korean players.
Today’s Asian Games victory is China’s third international League of Legends tournament title this year, following wins from professional Chinese teams at both the Mid Season Invitational and Rift Rivals.
With the Asian Games now concluded, both the Chinese and Korean players will return to their respective regions to continue in their league playoffs. While China’s LPL still has one more week of its Summer Split regular season to play, Korea’s LCK is all but finished, with the finals set to take place on Sept. 8.
