The League of Legends World Championship, which kicked off on October 16, is now on the brink of the quarter-finals. Four LCK teams charged into this year's tournament, but an unexpected early elimination has struck. Hanwha Life Esports, crowned number one in the power rankings right before the tournament and heavily tipped as a favourite, has unfortunately crashed out.

Hanwha Life Esports started strong by dismantling Chinese powerhouse Top Esports, but the wheels came off with back-to-back defeats against Gen.G and IG. Those two losses hurt, but the real alarm bell was the glaring drop in performance during the matches.

Afterwards, Hanwha Life Esports managed to scrape a win against European heavyweights G2 Esports, but stumbled at the final hurdle to the quarter-finals against Bilibili Gaming, bringing their Swiss stage journey to an end. Hanwha Life Esports now faces the daunting task of patching up the glaring flaws exposed during the tournament.

Meanwhile, all three remaining LCK squads have punched their tickets to the quarter-finals. Gen.G Esports and Dplus KIA secured their spots early by grabbing three wins first, while T1 coasted through with a favourable bracket draw. In the upcoming quarter-finals, Gen.G faces Lyon, Dplus KIA takes on Bilibili Gaming, and T1 clashes with Karmine Corp. It is going to be fascinating to see how the semi-finals shape up.