EDward Gaming take down Leviátan, advance to China's first-ever international grand final

EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #1 S1Mon Hsien Meng-Hsun (谢孟勋) ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) clinched their place in the grand finals of Champions 2024 with a triumphant 2-1 victory over LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee nataNk Nathan Bocqueho , sending the Americas Region's no. 1 seed down to the lower finals.

The three-map series was played out on Icebox, Lotus, and Abyss. Icebox was Leviátan's map pick and Lotus was EDG's map pick, leaving Abyss as the decider.

Leviátan won Icebox 16-14, EDG won Lotus 13-4, and EDG won Abyss 13-11.

EDward Gaming on stage before their upper final match vs. Leviátan (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games).

Friday's match was Champions 2024's first in the 15,000-seat INSPIRE Arena, where the competition's top four teams will be decided.

Leviátan picked Icebox, a map that had been a favorite of theirs, albeit a shaky one. They had picked it in their last three matches and won all three times, each result going to overtime. EDG began on attack.

The South American side seemed poised to make this Icebox different. It started with a strong defense side, which saw them clinch nine rounds thanks to a series of great retakes, highlighted by Mazino 's Harbor.

EDG's team comp consisted of four agents whose utility could be lethal in the post-plant, but they could not capitalize in those situations. They planted the bomb seven times in the half, winning just one of those rounds.

Even after being blown out in the first half, EDG held their heads high.

A pistol, anti-eco, and bonus round snowballed into them winning the first six rounds of the half. A pair of Leviátan timeouts did not deter them, as they tied up the score after facing what looked to be an insurmountable lead.

After a quiet first half, ZmjjKK seemed to have heated up. He'd finish the map with a server-high 28 kills, but in the end, it wouldn't be enough. Seven of those kills were operator kills.

With the teams knotted at nine rounds apiece, a moment of heroics saved Leviátan from losing a seventh straight round.

After the EDG run, both teams traded punches before heading to overtime. In the run-up to this match, Leviátan had three consecutive overtime Icebox victories against Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso , G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #3 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio JonahP Jonah Pulice leaf Nathan Orf , and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius .

On this particular day, Icebox was defense-sided. Until the third set of overtime rounds, no attack-sided OT rounds were won. In round 30, Leviátan finally found the soft spot of EDG's defense, clinching a 16-14 victory.

In the end, Leviátan's nine first-half victories gave them a cushion in a less-than-ideal attacking half, and eventually their fourth straight overtime victory on Icebox.

On Lotus, EDG began on attack and looked to flip the script of map one, dominating on the attack-sided, three-site map. After bolting out to a 5-1 lead, EDG seemed to lose their grip on the map. They'd regain control of it, finishing the half with an 8-4 lead.

The second half was more of the same for EDG. They'd win four straight rounds, with their 12th win being an exciting clutch for their star duelist.

While ZmjKK is most well-known for his seemingly impossible operator shots and fearless playstyle, his Neon on Lotus highlighted his movement, sliding around the Leviátan players. He had six first kills on the map, matching the combined output of his opponents.

His supporting cast on Lotus shone through. Smoggy , playing on Clove, finished with a server-high 19 kills. No EDG player finished with more deaths than kills, while tex was the only Leviátan player to finish the map positive, with a team-leading 17 kills.

Lotus was Leviátan's first map loss after seven consecutive victories, with their last loss coming in the group stage to Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #4 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) .

With both sides split at one map each, Abyss would decide who earned their way to a grand final and who faced elimination in the lower bracket.

It was still anybody's match by halftime, with both sides tied at 6-6.

The question entering 2024 was whether or not EDG could replicate their regional dominance on the international stage. On Abyss, going into the second half, it was whether or not EDG's zero-sentinel team comp could defend against the Leviátan attack.

On attack, the Americas region's no. 1 seed laid claim on mid, with aspas's Outlaw making space for his team to the defenders' side of the map. All the while, the story for EDG was their ability to lock down the A site of Abyss.

Trailing 10-7, EDG called their final timeout. Their opponents still had two to burn, meaning they had their opportunities to stop any momentum EDG might find.

Both teams eventually found themselves tied at 11 rounds each, with the star duelists of either side armed with operators.

EDG wrapped up business the following round, only dropping one player and breaking past the barrier to reach the Chinese region's first-ever international grand final.

Leviátan's two losses in their Champions 2024 campaign were to Chinese teams. Leviátan head coach Itopata said that there are similarities between Trace and EDG, but that there are also takeaways from Friday's loss.

“They're trading better than us. They are playing more together than us,” he said following the match. “EDG individually is a lot, a lot better. If you give them something, they're gonna run away with the game. We should know now for the grand final to not do that.”

ZmjKK finished with a server-high 61 kills across all maps, including a server-leading 20 first kills. Teammates CHICHOO and Smoggy finished with 59 and 58, respectively. Leviátan's Mazino finished with a team-high 57, while star duelist aspas ended with 53.

With the loss, Leviátan will play the winner of Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius in the best-of-five lower final. EDG now advance to the first international grand final in its region's history and await the victor of that lower final.

The lower final will take place on Saturday at 4 p.m. KST, and the grand final will be on Sunday at the same time.