Bilibili Gaming Bilibili Gaming China Rank #5 whzy Wang Haozhe (王昊哲) Levius Lu Yinzhong (卢胤中) rushia Wang Xiaojie (王晓杰) nephh Marcus Tan Knight Liu Yuxiang (刘宇翔) have qualified for playoffs as the Group C second seed after sweeping NRG Esports NRG Esports North America Rank #4 FiNESSE Pujan Mehta s0m Sam Oh Verno Andrew Maust mada Adam Pampuch Ethan Ethan Arnold once more in the final match of group stages.

The first bout saw BLG come out on top, defeating the American squad 2-0. However, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder sent BLG down to the lower bracket, where they awaited either NRG or ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori .

Swiftly dismantling ZETA in the elimination match, NRG were hungry for revenge and the chance for playoffs.

“Yeah, you guys are going home. A 100%, I guarantee, I promise you that,” proclaimed ardiis two days before.

Those words didn't live up to expectations as BLG began Bind with a 3-0 lead, but NRG quickly took control of their map pick and ended the first half 5-7. Even after winning the second pistol and bonus, Bilibili mounted a devastating snowball to an 11-9 lead, two rounds away from victory.

I think ardiis knows who Bilibili's duelist is.

The American squad won one more round before BLG closed out the map 13-10, only one more map from playoffs. yosemite was the man of the hour as he racked up 26 kills and a phenomenal 1.53 rating, with teammate whzy close with 24 kills and a 1.23 rating.

The Great National Park strikes despair into NRG.

The final stage of this performance was Ascent, a map that NRG had been known for avoiding. And it quickly showed why as the Chinese representatives came out with methodical suppression from Biank and Yosemite, only allowing NRG to win four rounds in the first half. Bilibili began their second half with a sublime pistol round from Knight and whzy, then followed up with a bonus.

Bang.

NRG would get their final round on round 15 and saw the end of the road three rounds later as BLG closed the game out in a resounding 13-5 victory.

Bilibili wowed the Los Angeles crowd once more, becoming the second Chinese squad in playoffs, alongside EDward Gaming. Despite the “upset”, whzy remained somewhat humble in his post-match interview.

“We have a lot of respect on [NRG] because there are so many great players; they got three champions and a very smart player s0m , and a top duelist in the world, although I am not sure what his name is,” whzy smirked. “We put respect on NRG, and we never underestimate any single team.”

FiNESSE had nothing but praise for Bilibili.

“Their midround was pretty exceptional [on Bind], and that was pretty difficult to handle and winning key clutch rounds helped their economy,” the IGL reflected. “So I just think they are an overall decent enough team, or good enough team, where a lot of players progress into sites and have very good enough reads to take space, and we weren't just able to capitalize on the space they were taking.”

Bilibili are set to face Pacific representatives DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) in the first match of playoffs on Thursday, August 17.