T1 defeated Bilibili Gaming 2-1 and Team Liquid swept Fnatic 2-0 in the quarterfinals of the League of Legends tournament at the Esports World Cup on Thursday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

T1 and Team Liquid will clash in the semifinals of the single-elimination bracket. The eventual winner of the eight-team tournament will bring home $400,000 of the $1 million prize pool.

All matches are best-of-three until Sunday’s best-of-five grand final.

T1 took an early lead in 39 minutes on red before Bilibili tied things up with a 32-minute win on red. T1 broke that tie by winning in 30 minutes and change, again on red, with Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun of South Korea posting a 7-0-10 kills-deaths-assists ratio for T1 in that win-or-go-home map.

Team Liquid defeated Fnatic in 26 minutes on blue and 37 minutes on red. The North American organization placed first at the LCS Spring 2024 event back in March.

The competition continues Friday with the other two quarterfinal matches:
–Gen.G Esports vs. Top Esports
–G2 Esports vs. FlyQuest

Esports World Cup prize pool (money, EWC club points):
1. $400,000, 1,000 points — TBD
2. $200,000, 600 — TBD
3-4. $100,000, 275 — TBD
5-8. $50,000, 60 — Bilibili Gaming, Fnatic, two others TBD

–Field Level Media