Nagoya Asian Games Esports Closing Day: the League of Legends Final Headlines, South Korea vs Chinese Taipei Replays the Hangzhou Matchup, and China’s 3-Gold 1-Silver Ledger#

By Zhanlan Yingren (NTGame Art Editor)

Hello everyone, Zhanlan Yingren here. Today is October 2, the last day of competition on the Nagoya Asian Games esports program. At 11:00 Beijing time this morning (noon local), League of Legends plays its gold final at Aichi Sky Expo between South Korea and Chinese Taipei. Once the evening medal ceremonies wrap, the esports marathon that has burned since September 22 is fully run.

One ground rule before I start: this piece is filed before the final begins, so the final’s result, game scores, and ceremony footage are outside today’s scope — for everything after the match, defer to authoritative post-match reporting. Today’s piece does two things: what to watch in a headlining final, and the full ledger of China’s Nagoya trip. Every result, date, name, and figure here follows the public reporting of Xinhua, Sina Sports, Cover News, Tencent News, and overseas esports media; I speculate on nothing.

On one side, tonight’s headliner; on the other, a settled 3 golds and 1 silver — for Chinese esports, a closing day with both suspense and a bankbook.

I. Semifinal Night: Two 2:0s, and the Final Matchup Is Set#

First, yesterday’s (October 1) two semifinals, both BO3 best-of-three:

Both were clean shutouts. Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, the beaten semifinalists, share this event’s bronze — there is no third-place match at these Games; the two semifinal losers split the third step of the podium.

Roll back one more day: the two single round-robin groups closed on September 29 and 30, with the final standings below.

Group B (closed September 30):

Group A (closed September 29):

Saudi Arabia and the UAE both finished one win and two losses; Saudi Arabia edged the tiebreaker on their head-to-head result and advanced as group runner-up.

The format’s structure deserves its own pass, because it directly shapes how to watch the final:

• Group stage: 8 teams in two groups, single round-robin, all BO1 single-game deciders;
• Semifinals: BO3 best-of-three;
• Final: BO5 best-of-five — the only BO5 of this event.

From one-game deciders to best-of-five, the format scales up stage by stage and the margin for error widens with it — the key context for this final, unpacked in the next section.

II. Final Storylines: the Hangzhou Scene, Replayed Verbatim in Nagoya#

First, the final’s biggest narrative: the Hangzhou Asian Games’ League of Legends final also pitted South Korea against Chinese Taipei, and South Korea took gold 2:0. Three years later, the same pairing meets again on a final stage in another city, as if the script were reprinted verbatim. Such rematches are rare in esports history — layered, no less, with a title defense and a revenge arc pulling against each other. That is the color of today’s noon BO5.

South Korea: a Defending Champion’s Speedrun Through Groups#

South Korea, as defending champion, won all three group matches without dropping a game — “speedrun” barely oversells it. The three BO1 reports, as a table:

No match went past 26 minutes; against India the gold lead was roughly 10,000, and against Hong Kong, China the differential hit 17,000. In the group stage, South Korea showed a dominance that never ceded an inch of tempo.

On the roster, a few key points:

• Captain “Faker” leads, with “Canyon,” “Zeus,” “Gumayusi,” and “Keria” all listed;
• The mid lane rotates between “Faker” and “Zeka,” and head coach Kang Dong-hoon’s pre-tournament line was “whoever is in better form plays”;
• “Faker” thereby became the first player in esports history to play three consecutive Asian Games: silver at the 2018 Jakarta exhibition event, gold at Hangzhou, and now a shot at a personal second gold in Nagoya.

The Military Service Thread: for Some a Tournament, for Others a Life#

You cannot watch South Korea at the Asian Games without one unique background variable: under Korean policy, an Asian Games gold medal exempts a player from mandatory military service. That thread weighs heavily in an LCK career, and this roster’s makeup is worth a close look:

• Already exempted through this route: “Zeus,” “Kanavi,” “Faker,” “Ruler,” “Chovy,” and “Keria,” all beneficiaries of that Hangzhou-cycle gold;
• First-time Asian Games selections “Canyon,” “Zeka,” and “Gumayusi” would cross the same life watershed if the team wins gold;
• “Oner” missed the cut this time and, with it, this pathway.

Inside one squad, some have already cleared service and chase a legend’s next chapter, while others stand at a fork in life — gold or not directly shapes the next several years of their careers. That is why South Korea’s will to win at the Asian Games never needs a pep talk: for “Faker” this is an embellishment on a legend; for “Canyon,” “Zeka,” and “Gumayusi,” it is a hard life threshold.

Chinese Taipei: a BO1 Loss Is Not Necessarily a BO5 Verdict#

Now the other side. Chinese Taipei finished second in Group B at two wins and one loss, and the only loss was to South Korea — BO1, 26 minutes. But one structural difference in format is worth spelling out:

• That group match was BO1: one tactical preparation, one mistake, and the game simply ends, with no room to adjust;
• The final is BO5: across five games both sides’ cards get turned over repeatedly — the depth of draft games, the room to adjust form, the granularity of targeted study are all on a different order from BO1;
• In other words, that 26-minute group-stage loss does not extrapolate linearly into today’s five-game war.

There is an individual-firepower storyline too: per Ensigame’s player statistics, Chinese Taipei’s “Doggo” posted 23 kills in the group stage. Across three BO1s, that is serious kill density.

Will the Hangzhou final script replay verbatim? Can Chinese Taipei turn a BO1 loss into a BO5 overturn? My stance is the same as ever: no score predictions, no scripts written for players. The format analysis goes this far; the rest of the suspense belongs to today’s noon opening.

III. China’s 3-Gold 1-Silver Ledger: All Four Entered Events Reach the Podium#

Pull the lens back from the final to the Chinese delegation. At these Nagoya Asian Games, China entered four esports events and closed with 3 golds and 1 silver — all four reached the podium. The full ledger:

Each event already has its own standalone recap: Naraka: Bladepoint’s gold in China’s Asian Games Naraka: Bladepoint gold, Honor of Kings’ defense in China’s Asian Games Honor of Kings gold, Game for Peace’s silver in the Asian Games Game for Peace closing recap, and Identity V’s gold in the Asian Games Identity V gold recap. Today’s piece will not go event by event again; the focus lands on two landmark individual milestones.

Yinuo: the First Double Gold Medalist in Asian Games Esports History#

On the night Honor of Kings was defended, Yinuo (Xu Bicheng) wrote his name into a brand-new record: he became the first athlete anywhere to win Asian Games esports gold twice, with national team selections at two consecutive Games. In the historical sequence of Asian Games esports, someone won gold at the first edition and someone defended at the second — but the first athlete with gold at two consecutive Games is Yinuo. This milestone’s weight will only sharpen with time: the Asian Games come every four years, a player’s prime does not always span two editions, and standing on the top step twice running takes form, opportunity, and era aligning at once.

Mu Xinyue: the First Female Gold Medalist Since Esports Joined the Asian Games#

The bigger milestone belongs to Identity V: Mu Xinyue, born in 2006 and brought in through Jinan, in-game ID Taowan’an, won gold with the team and became the first female gold medalist since esports entered the Asian Games. I wrote about that record in full in the earlier gold recap; today I add only this: that “first” is not a footnote to team honor — it is a marker of an era in itself. Asian Games esports has run three editions, and at last a female athlete has stood on the top step — and the record belongs to a Chinese player.

Three Homegrown Titles, Three Golds#

Lift the lens once more on that 3-gold 1-silver haul: all three golds come from Chinese-developed titles — Honor of Kings, Naraka: Bladepoint, and Identity V. Those three, together with Game for Peace, all sit on the official list of 11 esports events at these Games — the largest esports program in Asian Games history. Homegrown titles did not just reach a continental multi-sport event; they fought their way to the top of its podium. For an old player who came up through the Stone Age era of Chinese online games, that is the image of these Games that moves me most.

IV. The Absent Spectators: a Title That Wrote Our Entire Youth#

And still, we must come back to League of Legends. China did not enter the League of Legends event at these Nagoya Asian Games — from the 2018 Jakarta gold and the Hangzhou-cycle podium to a completely empty slot on the Nagoya schedule, this is the first time since esports joined the Asian Games that China has skipped the event. No authoritative account of the official reason has appeared, and per fact discipline I will not speculate; the fact itself stands. I already wrote about that absence’s regret in my notes from the first day of competition; today, only a closing stance on spectating.

Wind the clock back to 2018. At the Jakarta Asian Games, League of Legends was still a demonstration event; China beat South Korea 3:1 in the final to take gold, and Jian Zihao — in-game ID “Uzi” — was named MVP of the entire event. CCTV.com covered that final at the time; it was Chinese League of Legends’ moment in the sun. The generation that watched those streams in internet cafes and dormitories are mostly parents now — and when the event returned to the Asian Games stage, we had become spectators.

Watching today’s final as a spectator tastes complicated: on one side, a title from our youth still headlining the Asian Games stage; on the other, the hard fact that three homegrown titles stand on the top step within this 3-gold 1-silver haul. Regret and comfort on the same plate — that is the full picture of Chinese esports in Nagoya. We were not on the League of Legends final stage, but we carried our own titles and our own standards into this arena as a complete formation.

V. The ECS Officiating System: Another Invisible Gold Line#

The last piece of that “complete formation” is officiating. Per Cover News and Sina Sports, China’s homegrown ECS competition system (supported by Tencent Esports) was applied for the first time in full across all 11 esports events at these Games, covering the entire September 22 to October 2 schedule — and it is the only esports competition system in the world applied at a continental multi-sport event. Media reports add that CCTV Sports ran a feature on the system.

Unpack the workflow and you get a complete chain spanning pre-match, in-match, and post-match:

• Pre-match “inspection station”: security screening of player equipment, intercepting unauthorized peripherals and cheat macros, keeping risk out before play starts;
• In-match “hawk-eye command cabin”: real-time monitoring of 30-plus competition metrics, with anomalies visible as they happen;
• Post-match “review room”: replay and trace of the match process, generating review reports.

On specs, ECS is compatible with PC and mobile and supports five peripheral classes — keyboard, gamepad, steering wheel, arcade stick, and analog signal — a breadth that exactly covers these Asian Games’ full slate from shooters to racers to fighting games. Its foundations were not thrown up in haste: across the Hangzhou cycle the system supported 217 matches with zero technical incidents, and from January to June 2026 it went through three rounds of test events in Japan, Singapore, and Vietnam before full deployment in Nagoya.

From the angle of Chinese-made esports, this line matters as much as the medals: titles going global prove the competitiveness of content; an officiating system going global proves the competitiveness of systems and standards. From “our players go to the Asian Games and win gold” to “our system officiates the Asian Games” — two parallel export lines, and the second is harder and worth more than the first.

VI. After the Curtain: Kuwait Takes the Baton, and the Cycle Does Not End#

Finally, pull the camera wide and close the whole Asian Games esports cycle. September 22 to October 2, 11 days, 11 events — Nagoya pushed Asian Games esports to its largest scale ever; once tonight’s ceremonies end, the cycle formally closes. And the roadmap beyond is already on the table:

• The Olympic Council of Asia has stated via Xinhua that it denies “esports leaving the Asian Games,” making clear it “will not weaken esports’ standing within the Asian Games system”;
• On September 19 the OCA signed the host city contract with Kuwait for the first Asian Esports and Mind Games in 2027, adding a new track alongside the Asian Games cycle;
• The esports program for the 2030 Doha Asian Games has not been announced; that suspense belongs to the next cycle.

On one side, continuation and expansion within the multi-sport system; on the other, a new specialized Games — both lines point to the same judgment: the affair between esports and the Asian Games is not over; it simply continues in a more segmented, more systematic form. For China’s players, publishers, and audience, this is not a curtain call but a scene change.

Closing: the Last Paragraph of Closing Day#

By convention, a few words from a personal angle. Across these eleven days I watched every frame from Nagoya with an art editor’s eyes: the wuxia air of the night Naraka: Bladepoint took gold, the crispness of the night Honor of Kings was defended, the moment a young woman rewrote history on Identity V final night, and now the League of Legends final about to tip off at noon — for an old player who came up through the frontier years of Chinese online games, these frames assembled are the most concrete shape of the phrase “Chinese-made esports going global.”

I once assumed Chinese games would need ten years to grind away the “esports is a distraction” prejudice before reaching a continental Games podium; the road proved far faster than imagined — not only did players climb up, and titles climb up, even the officiating system became the event’s foundation. The 3-gold 1-silver ledger is certainly something to be proud of, but more worth keeping than the ledger are Mu Xinyue’s “first” gold, Yinuo’s “two consecutive Games” hands, and that inspection-station system written by Chinese engineers.

Today’s final — whether South Korea defends or Chinese Taipei overturns — is unrelated to us and related to us at once: unrelated, because China is not on the stage; related, because every highlight of this event sets coordinates for Chinese esports’ next four years. Spectator, then — but watch closely. After all, next time, who knows.

— Zhanlan Yingren, NTGame Art Editor