The 2022 League of Legends Pro League Summer season is just past the halfway point. With matches being played seven days a week, it’s hard to keep up with what the most important storylines in China’s premier league are. Thankfully, Upcomer has you covered. Here are the lessons we learned so far in this 2022 LPL Summer mid-week recap for Week 7.
RNG fleeced BLG in the top lane swap
The biggest news coming into the 2022 LPL summer split revolved around a surprising roster swap involving Royal Never Give Up, who days earlier won their second consecutive Mid-Season Invitational title, and Bilibili Gaming.
The trade included each team’s starting top laner: RNG sent Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin to BLG, and Chen “Breathe” Chen headed to RNG. Both players at the time seemed to be similar players in skill, which made the trade look lateral at best. However, with the summer split past the halfway point, revisiting the trade and its impact has shown some shocking results.
RNG and Breathe came into their first match of Week 7 with a 6-2 record. On the other hand, BLG have struggled. They came into Week 7 with just a 4-6 record. As fate would have it, Week 7 saw both teams square up with each other for the first time since the trade.
In Game 1 of the series, neither player was the reason behind their team’s success or failures as RNG simply outclassed BLG through their bot lane play. However, in Game 2, Bin definitely played a role in BLG’s demise. Despite being on his signature champion, Gangplank, Bin simply could not turn his early lead into something meaningful while Breathe was a rock in the top lane piloting Sejuani.
Bin ended the game with the most deaths on his team with only one kill to show for it as RNG easily breezed past BLG.
JDG is at the top, but the cracks are there
JD Gaming became the first team in the LPL to clinch a playoff spot to kick off Week 7 when they took down Invictus Gaming to move to 10-1 on the season. But despite their record, JDG haven’t really instilled confidence that they deserve to be tied for first in the league.
The first red flag the team has is its inability to outclass the lower competition. In two of their last three series, including their win against iG, JDG were taken to Game 3 against teams that will not even sniff the playoff race.
The second red flag is the lack of individual prowess. No player on JDG is near the top in player of the game standings and when it comes to team of the week awards, and no JDG player has been selected since Week 2. This could be a sign that the team doesn’t have any overperformers, but for a team that is 10-1, the lack of individual accolades is an anomaly.
JDG’s record is also inflated with many wins against weaker competition. In the coming weeks, JDG will have to play against the likes of RNG, Weibo Gaming and Victory Five.
TES are the best team in the world
With V5 showing that they can bleed, the top of the LPL standings opened up for the first time all year last week, and the hottest team in the world took full advantage.
Top Esports rode a nine-series win streak into Week 7. And unlike JDG, TES didn’t flinch against Rare Atom. Neither game went past the 30-minute mark as TES extended their winning streak to 10. If the season ended today, TES would be the No. 1 seed heading into playoffs, and unless someone steps up to knock them off, that’s where they are likely to be at season’s end.
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