Game News

Hanwha Life beat Bilibili 3-2 in Daejeon to win MSI, their first title in eight years

Hanwha Life Esports beat China's Bilibili Gaming 3-2 on 12 July to win the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational at the Daejeon Convention Center in South Korea. The Korea Herald said the best-of-five final lasted about six and a half hours in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,400, and that top laner Choi “Zeus” Woo-je was named finals MVP.

It was Hanwha Life's first MSI title and, the Herald said, the first tournament win in the team's eight-year history, in its first MSI grand final. The paper called it the fifth MSI title for a Korean team, after T1 in 2016 and 2017 and Gen.G in 2024 and 2025.

France's Sheep Esports described the swings: HLE took game one, BLG won the next two, and Zeus was decisive as HLE won the last two. It said BLG had been chasing a “Golden Road”, a season in which they would win every split and tournament, and have now lost all three of their MSI finals: to JD Gaming in 2023, Gen.G in 2024 and HLE in 2026.

“I have never lost confidence against BLG, I will definitely win.” — Gumayusi before the final, via Sheep Esports

How each outlet framed it

• The Korea Herald — a home win for Korean esports, with the crowd figure and the LCK's record.
• Sheep Esports — the match itself, game by game, and the end of BLG's bid for a perfect year.

What happened next: the win extends the LCK's run of consecutive MSI titles to three, the Herald noted, ahead of the World Championship final in New York.