On September 30, South Korea took early control of their group in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games League of Legends event held at Aichi Sky Expo in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, by defeating a formidable Taiwan team in their opening match. Taiwan features the mid-jungle duo of ‘HongQ’ and ‘Junjia’, who currently compete in the LPL, and is widely evaluated as the second-strongest team in the tournament behind South Korea.
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South Korea’s starting lineup for the opening match featured top laner ‘Zeus’, jungler ‘Canyon’, mid laner ‘Zeka’, bot laner ‘Gumayusi’, and support ‘Keria’.
Taiwan’s mid laner ‘HongQ’ on Ryze secured first blood against ‘Zeka”s Akali early on after a heavy trade. Fortunately for South Korea, tower damage and minion help allowed them to trade back and eliminate Ryze as well. ‘Canyon”s Vi then ganked mid to claim another kill on Ryze, while South Korea also shut down the opposing Ambessa in the top lane.
Although Taiwan claimed the first two dragons, South Korea remained unbothered. Capitalizing on their gold advantage, South Korea won a decisive river fight and expanded their gold lead to 4,000 by the 16-minute mark to seize full control of the game. Taiwan managed to stack a third dragon at the next timer, but South Korea crushed the surrounding teamfight to break the balance of the game completely. After comfortably securing Baron, South Korea accelerated the tempo, pressured their opponent, and destroyed Taiwan’s Nexus in just 26 minutes to cap off a successful first match.
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