WILD RIFT: KBG ends G2B’s phenomenal run to win WRL-Asia S2 Finals

The curse of Chinese dominance in the Rift is yet to be broken as Keep Best Gaming (KBG) defeated a resurgent G2 Blacklist team in the Grand Finals of the Wild Rift League Asia Season 2 finals last February 3.

The online tournament saw G2 Blacklist nearly give a dent to KBG, who were also the rivals of majority of the recoded G2B roster’s former team, Nigma Galaxy.

G2 Blacklist took the first round of the 7-round thriller, but KBG quickly regained momentum in Game 2. G2B went back for another win in Game #3, but Games 4 and 5 were won back-to-back by KBG. G2 Blacklist tried to extend the series for one more round in Game 6 – but KBG emerged victorious in Game 7.

It was a Cinderella story both for G2 Blacklist and its players. G2B’s former roster failed to deliver results despite the initial hype and was quickly eliminated in the league with its former roster. That former roster was removed, and replaced by Nigma Galaxy veterans – among them, Coach Gerald “Tgee” Gelacio, baron laners Chammy Paul “Chammy” Nazarea and Sean “emae” Baguino, jungler Justine Richie “Kaedy” Tan, midlaner Aaron Paul “Aaron” Bingay, dragon laner Golden Hart “Goldenk1te” Dajao, and support Reniel “Dr4w” Angara.

Only baron laner Karl Ken “KARLLL” Bautista joined the ex-NGM vets in this recoded roster.

G2B was winless in the round robin stages but beat Edward Gaming and South Korea’s KT Rolster to punch their own grand finals ticket.

Meanwhile, KBG was composed of Xu “KG” Sihan, Gao “DaT” Jianlin, Wu “QF16” Zhiheng, Yu “Anran9” Jinghang, Ma “Xiaoma” Juntao, and Wang “Uu” Guhao.

This is KBG’s second straight WRL-A finals title, and the team won the lion’s share of the ¥7,000,000 CNY or close to US$983,000 prize pool.