Hanwha Life Esports Claim MSI 2026 Title

Hanwha Life Esports won the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational 2026 after a dramatic victory over Bilibili Gaming.

On Sunday, July 12, Hanwha Life Esports claimed the second international title in the organisation’s history, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming 3-2 in the MSI 2026 grand final.

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  Winrz Luv @888Starz

The series kicked off with a highly entertaining map, where Bilibili Gaming showed they came to fight and hand Hanwha Life their second loss of the tournament.

Even though Hanwha Life Esports secured an early lead and looked poised to close it out quickly, BLG kept finding openings to keep the map close until a key Baron fight in the 41st minute, which allowed the Korean titans to come out ahead.

The second map played out similarly, with Hanwha Life Esports keeping up the pressure early and not allowing Bilibili Gaming to play their game.

However, HLE failed to gain any sizeable leads or break away from Bilibili Gaming, who stayed composed, kept stacking drakes, and eventually outscaled their opponents.

The third map was nothing like the first two. While Hanwha Life Esports dominated the first two maps early, it was Bilibili Gaming who secured a massive lead on map three, giving Jax two kills, which was enough to start a snowball effect.

With an aggressive composition, Bilibili Gaming took full advantage of their early gold and needed just over 32 minutes to secure a 2-1 series lead.

With their backs against the wall, Hanwha Life Esports struck back on the fourth map, utilising a Swain pick and a strong team-fighting composition to win a crucial fight around Baron at the 23-minute mark.

While Bilibili Gaming’s bottom lane kept causing them issues, HLE managed to be more effective on the map and with neutral objectives, eventually gaining too much momentum to be stopped.

The MSI 2026 grand final ended up being decided on map five, which proved to be a slugfest compared to the first four.

Both teams did their best to avoid giving up too much, which was reflected in fewer kills across the board during the early and mid-game.

The back-and-forth came down to a decisive Baron fight in the 36th minute, when Hanwha Life Esports cleaned up BLG and made one final push to the opponents’ Nexus.

CHAMPIONS. pic.twitter.com/yMRQHrha75

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) July 12, 2026

With that success, Hanwha Life Esports hoisted their second major trophy after winning the inaugural First Stand tournament in 2025.

Besides etching their names in the history books, HLE have also secured a spot at the LoL World Championship 2026, as long as they qualify for the playoffs in the final split of the Korean league.

While Hanwha Life Esports have reasons to celebrate, the MSI grand final loss has officially ended Bilibili Gaming’s path to the elusive Golden Road.

Besides the team’s success, Hanwha Life Esports’ MSI title run also marked a monumental moment for mid laner Kim “Zeka” Geon-woo and top laner Choi “Zeus” Woo-je, who became the first two players in history to win every major international LoL title, adding to their trophies from First Stand and LoL Worlds.

https://x.com/LCK/status/2076302228638568855

Zeus had another reason to celebrate, as he was declared MSI grand final MVP with a combined K/D/A of 19/23/33.

With MSI 2026 now in the rearview mirror, the focus shifts to the fast-approaching summer splits, set to begin at the end of the month.

LoL summer split start dates

• LPL 2026 Split 3 – July 19
• LEC 2026 Summer – July 24
• LCS 2026 Summer – July 25
• LCK 2026 Rounds 3-4 – July 29