Week 3 of the 2022 League of Legends Pro League has come and gone with seven straight days of series between the 17 teams in the league. With a lot of storylines to unpack, here are the lessons learned from the Week 3 action in the 2022 LPL summer split.
Dream is running away with ROTY
Victory Five came into Week 3 with their rookie mid laner Tan “Dream” Wen-Xiang still on the starting roster since MVP mid laner Song “Rookie” Eui-jin was still away. Dream has had an incredible start to his LPL career and, entering Week 3, he had his work cut out for him with FunPlus Phoenix and Royal Never Give Up on the schedule. But instead of rightfully looking shaky against two of the perceived top teams, it was just another week for Dream.
The match-up against FPX was a breeze for Dream. The series was a quick 2-0 for V5, which was actually expected since FPX have struggled immensely so far in the summer split. But Dream played on a different level. In the two-game series, Dream didn’t die once. He went 6/0/7 on Sylas in Game 1 and 6/0/4 on Lissandra in Game 2 as V5 improved to 3-0.
Then, in the matchup of the week, Dream and V5 went up against the Mid-Season Invitational champions, Royal Never Give Up, and one of the best mid laners of all time, Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao. But again, Dream couldn’t be beaten.
In Game 1, Dream went deathless once more, this time on Ahri, as V5 took the first game in 30 minutes. Game 2, however, was the first time in Dream’s young career where he looked outclassed. A 0/5/4 performance on Viktor in the face of Xiaohu’s 3/1/17 Lissandra pushed V5 to a Game 3.
With the pressure to bounce back on Dream’s shoulders, he played like a tested veteran in Game 3 and, in a long drawn out 43-minute game, Dream got the best of Xiaohu to seal the series 2-1 and finish the week still undefeated.
Dream is the clear favorite for Rookie of the Year, but with the MVP of the league’s return inevitable, V5 have a very good problem on their hands. Who will they go forward with in the mid lane once Rookie returns?
WBG lives and dies by Theshy
Weibo Gaming’s legendary top laner, Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok, is a very polarizing player. When he is at his best, he and whatever team he is playing for can’t seem to lose games. But when TheShy isn’t playing well, the team can’t win.
Due to this, WBG lives and dies by TheShy — and that is a scary position for a team trying to win an LPL championship. So far in the summer split, WBG’s record has been so-so. After Week 3, they sit at exactly seven game wins and seven game losses. Their 3-2 series record puts them in the dead middle of the playoff picture. Based on their record, TheShy has not been consistent at all and the results speak for themselves.
In Week 3 of the 2022 LPL summer split, WBG went 3-3 in games and 1-1 in series wins. In the three WBG losses, TheShy went a combined 5/17/5 in those games and was the primary reason for those losses. In WBG’s three wins, TheShy was better, going 9/5/15 and even picked up a player of the game award. Overall, though, TheShy has been more of a hindrance for his team than not so far in the 2022 LPL summer split.
BLG are losing the Breathe/Bin trade
Just days after RNG won MSI 2022 with Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin as their starting top laner, the team shockingly made a trade with Bilibili Gaming to acquire top laner Chen “Breathe” Chen in a swap for Bin. The move on paper seemed to be lateral for both teams, but eyes were on RNG and BLG to see if one team fleeced the other.
With little time spent with their new teams, it’s apparent that Bin and Breathe will need time to adjust to their new environments. However, after three weeks, one team is doing way better than the other.
In Week 3, BLG and Bin went up against Top Esports in their first match. They were defeated 2-0 with Bin not looking terrible. Yet despite an OK performance, his opponent, “Wayward,” was the main carry for TES taking home both player of the game awards. In their second match against Edward Gaming, Bin again couldn’t manage to carry the team as BLG went 0-2 on the week.
But for RNG, Breathe was a breath of fresh air in their Week 3 matches. Against WBG, Breathe outplayed TheShy and in the series-deciding Game 3, he picked up player of the game. Breathe also looked fantastic in Game 2 of the V5 series as well. RNG has only played three series but don’t look to far off from their MSI form while BLG are 1-4 and have not looked good in almost every one of their games.
