THE WIRE is f0rmless’s weekly esports dispatch — the matches that just concluded, and the marquee slate ahead, across sixteen titles. A new edition posts every Monday. The schedule board stays spoiler-free; the calls live here.
KRÜ BLAZE WIN THE GAME CHANGERS CHAMPIONSHIP FROM THE LOWER BRACKET, AND KARMINE CORP, LYON AND BILIBILI GAMING TAKE THE LAST THREE WORLDS QUARTERFINAL PLACES
▲ Results ahead — the Wire calls the week as it happened.
The World Championship Swiss Stage ended Saturday. The eight quarterfinalists are three LCK teams, three LPL teams, Karmine Corp from the LEC and LYON from the LCS. Gen.G and Dplus KIA went through unbeaten at 3–0.
See the slateLOS won the first game. LYON won a 47-minute second game and the third to take a quarterfinal place. A win would have made LOS the first CBLOL team to reach the knockout stage. 296,221 watched at the peak, the most of any match this week.
BracketLost 0–2 to Shopify Rebellion Gold in the upper semifinals, then won three series in a row from the lower bracket. They are the first Latin American team to win the Game Changers Championship, and the first team to win it from the lower bracket.
Official site
Amaro “tok1o” Miranda was named MVP of the Game Changers Championship.
Player pageAfter KRÜ BLAZE beat Gentle Mates GC 3–2 in the Game Changers Championship Grand Final in São Paulo on Sunday, tok1o said in the post-game press conference:
“We didn’t have a thing about losing.”
▌ By the numbers · Oct 26 – Nov 1
▌ Match by match · Oct 26 – Nov 1
KRÜ BLAZE beat Gentle Mates GC 3–2 on Sunday to win the VALORANT Game Changers Championship in São Paulo. It is the first title in the event for a Latin American team. In League of Legends, the World Championship Swiss Stage ended Saturday. Karmine Corp, LYON and Bilibili Gaming won their last series and took the final three quarterfinal places. Movistar KOI, LOS and Hanwha Life Esports went out at 2–3.
Gentle Mates GC won the first and fourth maps of the Grand Final; KRÜ BLAZE won the second, third and fifth. KRÜ beat MIBR GC and Shopify Rebellion Gold to get there, and take $180,000.
Round 5 on Saturday was three series between 2–2 teams: the winners went through, the losers went home. Hanwha Life Esports beat G2 Esports 2–0 in Round 4 to reach it, then lost to Bilibili Gaming.
★ Most watched — biggest live audience of the week
The week ahead ▶Nov 2–8
The League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals run Tuesday to Friday, one series a day at 5 PM ET: Top Esports v Invictus Gaming, Gen.G v LYON, Dplus KIA v Bilibili Gaming, then T1 v Karmine Corp. In Rainbow Six Siege, the BLAST Major opens its GSL stage on Thursday night. The board does not pick winners; it only tells you where to be, and when. Set a reminder, and your own device will call you to the stream.
Three LCK teams, three LPL teams, one from the LEC and one from the LCS. Top Esports and Invictus Gaming, both LPL, open the bracket against each other.
Phase 1 is a GSL stage. These four matches start Thursday from 7:30 PM ET, one an hour.
WATCHED BY THE F0RMLESS