Peanut’s Last Dance in a Crazy Quarterfinals at Worlds

We had one quarterfinals played at LoL Worlds 2025 so far, and it’s already blown out expectations. Records set, crazy plays, Peanut’s retirement and other farewells done: here’s all you need to know about this match.

GenG vs HLE: A farewell to Peanut and the LCK caster duo

Before getting onto the game itself, the first point has to be the legacy that these moments left.

The end of Peanut’s career

Next year, Peanut, one of the best players at LoL Worlds, will have to complete his mandatory military service. As such, he had already announced that this year, and this Worlds, would be his last. Now, with HLE’s loss against GenG, their Worlds run ends here, and Peanut is now retiring.

Peanut played his first match in the professional scene in 2015. In 2016, he became part of ROX Tigers and made a Worlds run that got engraved in history. The Tigers reached the semifinals, where they faced SKT, the definitive tournament favorites. In that series, they pulled out support Miss Fortune as a counter to Zyra – a pick that they brought to light, and that had never been seen before.

SKT still won, with a score of 3-2. But the series was extremely competitive – much more than anyone expected – and that pick still occasionally terrorizes solo queue nine years later. But nine years later, people always name SKT vs ROX as one of their picks when asked for their favorite series of all time.

Image Source: Riot Games / LoL Esports (@lolesports)

He then joined SKT the next year, then Kingzone in 2018, both times achieving great results (winner of the 2017 MSI, runner-up at the 2017 Worlds and 2018 MSI), and eventually moved to China, where it seemed like his career would end with a whimper.

But he returned to the LCK for 2021, and was once again the very intelligent, uniquely creative jungler that he was known for. The player that expertly facilitates every lane through unforeseen means. And that’s what he kept being until the end. He may have never won a World Championship, but his legacy bears just as much weight.

Peanut’s career stats

A few quick stats about Peanut’s career:

• 10-year-long career
• 7 LCK titles, 11 international appearances
• 1189 professional games played, with a 63% win rate
• Over 2000 kills reached (first jungler to achieve that milestone)
• Over 5000 assists reached (third player to achieve that milestone in the LCK)

The last of the ROX Tigers

Peanut was the last active member of the legendary roster of the 2016 ROX Tigers. The roster that gave SKT such a run for their money at a time when they were unbeatable. The squad that played the Bo5 widely perceived as the best series of all time.

Nine years later, the Tigers are no more.

The end of an era for LCK commentary

Chronicler, too, is retiring at the end of the year, to move with his family and spend more time with them. Chronicler still has games to cast at Worlds! However, this was the last series for him to cast alongside Atlus, his long-time LCK casting partner.

Over his career, Chronicler has cast 691 series, and 279 of them were with Atlus. It’s fitting that their send-off was such an amazing match between the two Korean front-runners!

Image Source: Riot Games / LoL Esports (@lolesports)

GenG vs HLE: A close series for the ages

Now let’s talk about the series!

As a rematch of the LCK finals, this series was predicted to likely be the toughest roadblock GenG, one of the best LoL teams of all time, would face in their 2025 LoL Worlds run. And it sure lived up to these expectations. Despite achieving the same score as the LCK finals, HLE put up a much fiercer fight this time. Games 1 and 2 traded on margins and could have gone either way. With Hanwha Life winning game 3, that means they were details away from getting a 3-0 against the tournament favorites.

It didn’t happen, and that’s what will matter. HLE went out with their heads high.

• Game 1 was a series of mistakes on both ends resulting in HLE claiming a lead after Atakhan. But then, close fight after close fight ensued, and a number of brilliant Neeko ults by Duro ended up giving GenG the decisive fight.
• Game 2 was crazy – we’ll go back on it right after, but it also resulted in a GenG victory.
• In game 3, HLE punched back mainly thanks to GenG drafting a comp that crucially lacked early game damage, and still deciding to take a fight at Herald despite having a much weaker 1-item spike than HLE.

But HLE’s hopes were short-lived as GenG pulled out Kiin’s K’Sante and Canyon’s Nidalee for game 4. A single poor teleport from Zeus caused HLE to slowly but surely lose out. To try to combat that, they attempted forcing a fight, which went south and caused GenG to be in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the game and series.

Image Source: Riot Games / LoL Esports (@lolesports)

The longest LoL Worlds game since 2016

Now, about that game 2…

Game 2 started with Zeus repeatedly dying in an advantageous match-up. Still, HLE was managing to get a gold lead, but GenG walked it back while also claiming 3 drakes for themselves, partly thanks to Delight misplaying the fights.

GenG then got solidly ahead off the back of everyone on HLE bar Viper making mistakes, going up 5k gold and a Baron. But in the meantime, Peanut clutched 50/50 smites, and claimed 3 drakes back for HLE.

Then, after one HLE baron and dragon soul, a throw in GenG’s base, an Azir ult negated by his own Xin Zhao ult, a GenG baron and Elder, an HLE defense, and a weird final teamfight in the mid lane, GenG finally won.

The game went on for 58:51. This was, in fact, the longest Worlds game since 2016 and the fourth longest Worlds game overall. Ahead of it, the top 3 are:

• FNC vs OMG in 2014 with the Nexus incidents (71:34)
• SKT vs SSG’s game 3 in 2016 which turned what would have been a quick 3-0 for finals into the longest series in Worlds history (71:20)
• FW vs C9 in 2016, when Meteos needed an hour to learn Lee Sin (70:20)

Funnily, no Worlds game has ever lasted between 60 and 70 minutes!

Coverage of the LoL Worlds Knockout stage continues every day, make sure to stick around!

Featured Image Source: Riot Games / LoL Esports (@lolesports)