End of the road in this LPL Split 3 for JD Gaming on September 16, as Anyone’s Legend clean swept them in the Lower Bracket Semifinals to qualify for a clash with Top Esports on the 20th. TES had previously fallen to Bilibili Gaming in a completely unpredictable series. JDG now join Weibo and Invictus Gaming in the Regional Finals. As a reminder, BLG are the only team already qualified for Worlds through Championship Points.

The series was bloody, full of twists and utterly unpredictable, with gold graphs swinging wildly in every game and teamfights that could have gone either way. In the first game, AL controlled most of the pace, with Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong’s clutch engages on Poppy being decisive as he constantly invaded the enemy jungle. Xu "Xiaoxu" Xing-Zu tried to make the difference on Ambessa, and JDG even managed to win some fights to retake the lead, but nothing could stop the scaling of Wang "Hope" Jie’s Yunara, who, once online, completely wiped teamfights.

Hope leaves JDG hopeless

The second game was outright domination from JDG, building over a 4k gold lead with a composition heavily centered around Kim "Peyz" Su-hwan, who, as often during these playoffs, was the cornerstone for his team. But it still wasn’t enough. Once again, it was Hope who took over, this time on Ziggs, dealing nearly 80k damage with a flawless 6/0/10 performance that completely swung the game in AL’s favor.

And true to the saying, never twice without a third—JDG once again held the lead for most of the game. This time it was Cui "Shanks" Xiao-Jun pulling out Lissandra, but yet again, Hope’s scaling proved unstoppable. On Sivir, he closed it out in just 32 minutes, sealing the series for AL and sending them to the Lower Bracket Final against TES.

JDG fall hard in this best-of but not without resistance. Their journey now takes them to face Weibo in the Regional Finals, where they will fight for a chance to reach the decisive match that could carry them to Worlds 2025—a perilous path ahead for a team far from its best year, but still capable of making something happen.