EDward Gaming has eliminated Royal Never Give Up from the 2021 League of Legends World Championship knockout stage in an epic 3-2 series. In doing so, EDG has secured a top 4 finish at Worlds 2021, which is the first time the organization has ever made it past the quarterfinals in World Championship history. 

More often than not, EDG has come into the World Championship as China's reigning champion, but year after year, have underperformed internationally. The sole exception was the inaugural Mid-Season Invitational in 2015, where EDG beat SKT T1 in a five-game epic to hand Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok the first international loss of his career. 

EDG came in as the LPL's number 1 seed at Worlds 2021 having won the Summer Playoffs over FunPlus Phoenix and got off to a strong start in Group B. EDG started the group 4-0, with star AD carry Park "Viper" Do-hyeon going deathless in all four games. However, EDG faltered in the second round-robin and finished 4-2, securing the 2nd seed out of the group behind the #2 LCK seed T1, who took first place in the group at 5-1.

Not to repeat past organizational mistakes, EDG came out of the gate against Royal Never Give Up with a strong gameplan to squeeze RNG mid laner Yuan "Cryin" Cheng-Wei, whose champion pool has been under heavy scrutiny throughout all of Worlds 2021. However, a pocket Annie pick for Cryin, which made two appearances in the match, extended the series to the fifth game as the Dark Child secured a win in game 4 for RNG.

Ultimately, a game 5 Annie ban, along with more mid lane bans than the other four games of the series, ended up being the difference maker. Cryin had far less impact on Orianna despite his historical familiarity with the champion, and EDward Gaming took the series 3-2.

EDG moves on to the semifinals to face the winner of Cloud9 and Gen.G, who play on Monday, October 25.