JD Gaming notched a 3-0 sweep of Rogue to kick off the knockout stage at the League of Legends World Championship on Thursday in New York.
JD Gaming advanced to an Oct. 29 semifinal, where they will meet the winner of the T1-Royal Never Give Up match to be held Friday.
JD beat Rogue in 29 minutes on blue, 30 minutes on red and 33 minutes on red.
Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok of South Korea led JD with a 13/5/10 kills-deaths-assists ratio. Teammate Lou “Missing” Yunfeng of China added a match-high 25 assists.
Sweden’s Emil “Larssen” Larsson topped Rogue with an 8/2/4 K-D-A ratio.
Sixteen teams were divided into four groups for the double-round-robin group stage, which ended Sunday. All matches consisted of a single map. The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout stage, with the third- and fourth-place sides in each group heading home.
The knockout stage is scheduled to run until Nov. 5, with all matches best-of-five. The entire group stage and the quarterfinals are being held at New York’s Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden. The semifinals are set for State Farm Arena in Atlanta, and the grand final will be contested at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
The remaining quarterfinal matches:
–Friday: T1 vs. Royal Never Give Up
–Saturday: Gen.G Esports vs. DAMWON Gaming
–Sunday: DRX vs. EDward Gaming
League of Legends World Championships prize payouts (initial prize pool $2,225,000):
1. $489,500 — TBD
2. $333,750 — TBD
3-4. $178,000 — TBD
5-8. $100,125 — Rogue, three other teams TBD
9-10. $55,625 — Fnatic, Top Esports
11-14. $52,843.75 — Evil Geniuses, G2 Esports, 100 Thieves, CTBC Flying Oyster
15-16. $50,062.50 — Cloud9, GAM Esports
17-18. $38,937.50 — MAD Lions, DetonatioN FocusMe
19-20. $33,375 — Saigon Buffalo, LOUD
21-22. $22,250 — Beyond Gaming, Isurus
23-24. $16,687.50 — Chiefs Esports Club, Istanbul Wildcats
–Field Level Media