A Chinese team became the inaugural champion of the League of Legends Mid-Season Cup on Sunday, defeating several Korean teams.

The cup features the top four teams from the Korean and Chinese leagues in the popular multiplayer online battle game, based on their spring competitions.

Only one of the three League of Legends Champions of Korea (LCK) teams in the tournament, Gen.G Esports, was able to qualify for the semifinals, while three teams of China’s LoL Pro League -- JD Gaming, Top Esports and FunPlus Phoenix -- made it into the semifinals.

Though Korean fans had high expectations for Gen.G, Top Esports demolished it in a 3:0 sweep on Saturday. Later, TES defeated FunPlus Phoenix 3:1 in the final and took home the inaugural Mid-Season Cup.

Top Esports was a strong player throughout the whole tournament, not losing a single game to the LCK squads from the preliminary rounds. Knight, Top Esports’ star player, showed off his skills against LCK big players, Faker, BDD and Showmaker.

“Many fans can remember Korean teams defeating Chinese teams in the past, but through recent games we can feel just how big the LPL teams have become now,” said LCK caster Seong Seung-heon after Gen.G’s loss on Saturday. “The semifinals have become a wall to us. It has been a while since we went to the finals on an international stage.”

Up to 2017, Korean teams from the LCK dominated the international scene. From 2015 to 2017, Korean teams were pitted against each other in the finals of the World Championship. Chinese teams, however, have won the World Championship two years in a row since then, while Korean teams have been unable to reach to the finals of major tournaments.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)