Anyone's Legend Stun BLG to Win LPL Split 3 and Claim China's First Seed for Worlds
Photo Credit: LPL
Nobody in Shanghai expected this. Six days after Bilibili Gaming had swept them 3-0 in the upper bracket final, Anyone's Legend walked back into the Oriental Sports Center on Sunday, a day removed from a five-game war with Invictus Gaming, and took the LPL Split 3 title from the two-time defending championswith a 3-1 that flattered the loser. The team that had ruled China all year — Split 1, Split 2, First Stand — never looked in control of the series they were supposed to close with a grand slam.
Hope, the answer to a year of doubt
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The final belonged to Wang "Hope" Jie. The ADC closed the BO5 (best-of-five) at 27/6/20 and 92.7k damage, the highest of any player on either side, and authored the moment that ended it: a pentakill on Miss Fortune in game four, seconds after Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong had stolen the Baron BLG had thrown itself at in desperation. Hope finished that game 13/0/5, after his Jhin (7/1/6) had already set the tone in the opener.
For a player who has never been comfortable in front of a microphone, the words afterwards were pointed.
There were a lot of voices doubting us this year, this is the best answer we could give,
he said. In his ninth year as a professional, it is his second LPL title.
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Tarzan, the tempo BLG could not follow
If Hope was the finisher, Tarzan was the reason the games were already decided. The Finals MVP went 15/6/33 across the series and ended up with a 70 RFT rating — the highest of the BO5. But the number that matters is where he was: on Qiyana in game one, then on Cho'Gath in game two, where an 8/0/6 line punished Chen "Bin" Ze-bin's toplane Kai'Sa gamble from the first minutes and turned the game into a 20-1 execution. He then played Maokai in the decider without dying, 0/0/14, and did more damage than most of the BLG lineup.
Behind him, Kim "Kael" Jin-hong recorded fifty assists. And Chen "Breathe" Chen, signed in late July to replace Li "Flandre" Xuan-jun, went 12/7/26 with the best rating on the team; his Rumble in game one (2/0/10, 29.6k damage) was the first crack in BLG's armor. He was in tears before he could speak on stage. "I finally got what I wished for," he managed.
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In his tenth season as a professional, Tarzan kept the perspective the team had lost a week earlier. "It is sometimes hard to play with me," he admitted.
But what an incredible and precious journey we had. Because of my teammates and our fans, we got to win this trophy.
From self-doubt to the trophy
The week between the two series was the story: "When we lost to BLG, we fell into self-doubt," head coach Fu "BigWei" Chien-wei said. "AL is a team that works incredibly hard, and being beaten like that really hurt. We spent a lot of time preparing for this." Cui "Shanks" Xiao-jun, whose Yone found insane angles in game 4, put it more simply: "It still feels like a dream. BLG is really strong, they 3-0'd us. I just wanted to play well and enjoy the stage."
On the other side, the collapse was collective but started on the top side. Bin ended the series 8/16/14 and Peng "Xun" Li-xun 4/17/23; only Zhuo "Knight" Ding's Akali (10/2/4) and Park "Viper" Do-hyeon's Xayah (6/0/8) in game three kept BLG from a sweep. Bilibili Gaming, who had already swept both splits in 2024, fall one series short of becoming the first team to win all three LPL splits in a single season.
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The comeback of a year
For AL, this is a return more than a rise. The most consistent Chinese team of 2025 — Split 1 finalist, Split 2 champion, third in Split 3 — had spent this year off the podium in the first two splits and had been knocked out of the Esports World Cup 2-0 by Karmine Corp in the quarterfinals. Every one of their international exits in 2025 had come in five games, against Gen.G and T1 at MSI and against T1 at Worlds. They arrive at Worlds 2026 as the LPL's first seed, with BLG behind them as second, and the last two Chinese tickets to be decided between Top Esports, Invictus Gaming, Team WE and JD Gaming from September 17 to 19.
I hope we prepare well for Worlds,
Tarzan said. "We don't want to disappoint our fans." After Sunday, few would bet against them again — but one perfect day will not be enough to prove that AL are truly back. If they want a Worlds title, they will need to play like this for a month, not an afternoon.
