Well into the last game of the day, Beijing JDG Esports had six towers and HANJIN BRION had two. Gold was close to level, with JDG ahead by 891, and BRION led the kill count 9-7.
It ended 21-10 to BRION in 35:33. From that point they won the kills 12-3, took both Barons, and finished with nine towers to six and a gold lead of nearly 11,000. Six Bo1s were played on October 3, the opening day of the 2026 Demacia Cup Global Invitational, and this was the one with the most behind it.
A JDG lineup four days old
On September 29, rft.gg reported that JDG had parted ways with starting mid HongQ and starting jungler JunJia, and that the new lineup would debut against BRION. The headline said "reportedly", and we haven't seen a club statement. What we do have is the game itself, where xiaofang played jungle and Angel played mid.
The scoreboard reads like five players still learning each other. xiaofang's Pantheon took seven of JDG's ten kills and died six times. GALA, a two-time LPL champion and two-time MSI winner, went 0/2/4 on Ezreal, and JDG's bot lane ended the game without a kill.
BRION shared the load instead. GIDEON took our MVP card on Lee Sin at 6/1/9, Casting went 6/4/9 on Jayce, and Teddy closed at 5/1/9 on Miss Fortune. Teddy is the name most readers will know: T1's bot laner from 2018 to 2021, an LCK champion in spring 2019 and third at Worlds that year. He joined BRION in November 2025, and Sheep Esports' roster coverage called 2026 very likely his final year. That's a press read, not an announcement.
Then there's where each team came from. BRION went 10-16 in the LCK, topped the lower Rise Group, lost play-in series 3-2 to kt Rolster and 3-2 to BNK FEARX, and never reached the playoffs. Inven Global described them as "stepping onto an international stage for the first time in nine years." JDG collected 50 championship points in the first LPL split of the year, and the knockout stage of this tournament will be played in their home arena.
East and Brazil against Europe and North America
By region, the day went like this: LCK 3-0, LPL 2-1, CBLOL 1-0, LCP 0-1, LEC 0-2, LCS 0-2.
Calling that East against West misses two things. China's only loss came against a Korean team, and the lone win from outside Asia belonged to Brazil. The draw kept teams from the same region apart in Round 1, so all six games crossed regions, and the four that involved a European or North American team all went the other way.
The other five games
RED Canids Kalunga 16-3 Natus Vincere (34:48). RED Canids took ten towers to one, and Morttheus took our MVP card at 7/0/3 on Lucian. Hotspawn's preview had RED Canids down as probably the weakest team in the competition and picked NAVI. Brazil's seat was meant for the CBLOL's third placed team, which couldn't attend because of a scheduling clash, so the fourth placed side travelled. NAVI rebuilt almost from zero for 2026, keeping one player from the previous year, and the roster kept moving during the season.
LGD Gaming 22-2 FlyQuest (37:11). Nine towers to one, with Shaoye at 10/0/6 on Lucian. The score is the end of a long year for FlyQuest. Last season's North American champions rebuilt on a reduced budget and kept two starters. Inspired, the league's 2025 MVP, left for LYON; the coaching staff changed too. In September the club's president apologised publicly for a co-streaming documentary and unlisted it, 24 hours before the playoff series that decided their Worlds place, which they lost 0-3 to Team Liquid on September 20. LGD are on the opposite curve: zero championship points in the first LPL split, 50 in the third.
kt Rolster 21-11 Shopify Rebellion (25:23). Ten towers to none, with our MVP card going to Bdd on Ryze. Hotspawn and Inven Global both had kt Rolster among the favourites, and this game looked exactly like its preview. Their form dipped late in the LCK season; none of that showed on Saturday. For both LCS teams the timing is awkward, since the LCS Championship weekend in Atlanta falls on October 3 and 4.
BNK FEARX 15-8 Team Vitality (23:16). The shortest game of the day, and BFX won it through fights: they lost the dragon count 1-2. BFX also won the 2025 Asia Invitational, 3-2 over Dplus KIA, an event Inven Global calls the spiritual predecessor of this one. Vitality went 7-2 in the LEC Summer regular season, good for second, then went out on the lower side of the playoff bracket against Movistar KOI. Hotspawn had picked them here.
Xi'an Team WE 17-4 GAM Esports (29:41). About went 8/1/3 on Lucian and took our MVP card. GAM reportedly parted ways with starting jungler Draktharr before the tournament, and Tiphat was the one in the jungle against WE. A jungler change this close to the event, with an LPL side first up, is context the score needs.
Hotspawn's September 29 preview missed on three of the six. It did flag JDG's mid and jungle uncertainty in the same paragraph where it said BRION "should not be too difficult for them." The warning was on the page.
One bot lane, three times
Three teams drafted Lucian with Milio: RED Canids, LGD and WE. All three won, and their games were the three most lopsided of the day at 16-3, 22-2 and 17-4. The three Lucian players died once between them.
The mirror image is just as tidy. Lulu with Yunara went 0-3, in the hands of NAVI, Vitality and GAM, and Rumble top lost all four games it appeared in. BRION, kt Rolster and BFX won without touching Lucian or Milio.
This needs its caveat spelled out. It's six maps, on one day, on one patch (16.18). Treat it as a description of October 3 and not as a forecast of anything after it.
What comes next
Round 1 was the only Bo1 round. Rounds 2 to 4 of the Swiss stage are Bo3, two wins send a team through to the knockout stage, and eight of the twelve get there. The three teams that fall to 0-2 play a single round robin among themselves, and only one of them stays alive.
Round 2 pairs the six winners on October 4: LGD Gaming vs BNK FEARX, RED Canids vs kt Rolster, and Xi'an Team WE vs HANJIN BRION. Each of those series sends its winner straight to the knockout stage. On October 5 it's the six teams at 0-1: GAM Esports vs Team Vitality, Natus Vincere vs FlyQuest, and Shopify Rebellion vs Beijing JDG Esports, with the loser of each dropping into that round robin.
The knockout stage starts on October 12 at the Beijing Smart Esports Center, single elimination and Bo5 throughout, and the format allows Coach Comms there. That's JDG's building. After Saturday, their route to it runs through Shopify Rebellion first.