2026 MSI Champion Hanwha Life Esports has been eliminated in the Swiss Stage.
Hanwha Life Esports suffered a 0-2 defeat against BLG with a spot in the Quarterfinals on the line. In a rematch of the 2026 MSI Finals, BLG completely dominated Hanwha Life.
Facing elimination, Hanwha Life got off to a poor start, suffering deaths in both the bot and top lanes. Still, they immediately made up for their losses by catching 'Viper's Yunara. Hanwha Life also secured Void Grubs and had a draft with strong teamfight potential, leaving them in a workable position. However, BLG targeted Syndra in the mid lane to force out Flash, and Pantheon moved top to join Olaf in taking down 'Zeus's K'Sante.
When Hanwha Life applied pressure in the bot lane, 'Kanavi's Skarner attempted a dive targeting Locke. However, BLG's Lulu and Olaf arrived at the right moment to save Locke and turned the fight around to kill Skarner and K'Sante instead. By the 20-minute mark, BLG held a 4,000-gold lead, had destroyed all of their opponent's outer turrets, and stacked three Dragons.
Hanwha Life avoided forcing an early attempt to break BLG's Dragon stacks, instead stalling for time to focus on scaling. However, BLG's growth was not slowing down either. When the next Dragon spawned, Hanwha Life, unable to simply give up the Soul, prepared for a teamfight. But BLG secured the Soul, won the teamfight decisively, and took Baron, widening the gold gap to 10,000. Elimination was now looming large for Hanwha Life.
It did not take long for their elimination to be sealed. Pressuring Hanwha Life with an overwhelming gap in firepower, BLG destroyed Hanwha Life's Nexus shortly after, grabbing the final spot in the Quarterfinals.
