Week 5 of the 2022 League of Legends Pro League summer split has just crossed the halfway point with half the games being played in the nonstop seven-day LPL play week. Many storylines, interesting results and more have already happened over in China’s premier league.
With their matches being played at awkward times for fans over in the west, Upcomer has you covered with a mid-week recap going over the most important lessons learned over the course of the 2022 LPL summer split.
Rookie is back in MVP form
Its been five long weeks without Song “Rookie” Eui-jin in the mid lane as he has been patiently waiting for his mandatory quarantine period to pass. Ironically, in those five weeks, Victory Five haven’t really missed him thanks to their phenom rookie mid laner Tan “Dream” Wen-Xiang holding it down.
But just because you have a super rookie ready for the big show doesn’t mean its time to move on from the face of the franchise, especially one that is coming off a split where he just won league MVP.
Rookie made his 2022 LPL summer debut on Wednesday against Rare Atom, and not only did V5 still win in convincing fashion despite Rookie not playing in an official match in months, he looked just as good as when he left. Rookie looked fantastic in the short two-game series against RA and was able to play both as a facilitator for his team and as the primary carry.
In Game 1 against RA, Rookie put up a 1/0/11 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) scoreline on Taliyah, and in Game 2 he styled on the opposition going 4/1/6 on LeBlanc. He picked up both player of the game honors as well as V5 continued their undefeated run so far in the 2022 LPL summer split. The fact that V5 were able to transition from Dream to Rookie and look even better than they did in spring bodes well for V5’s chances at qualifying for the League of Legends World Championship later this year.
FPX is a completely different team with Summit
FunPlus Phoenix have been anything but for a majority fo the 2022 LPL summer split. The team, which had playoff aspirations heading into the summer, started off the season with an 1-5 record which put them in last place in the LPL. But after signing the 2022 League Championship Series spring MVP Park “Summit” Woo-tae, something started to click.
After going down 0-1 against JD Gaming in Week 4, the team finally subbed in Summit and were able to pull off the reverse-sweep against one of the best teams in the league. To start off Week 5, FPX made it three straight wins as they took down LGD Gaming 2-1, and Summit was a big reason why. Although he didn’t pick up either player of the game honors, in FPX’s two wins in the series, Summit went a combined 11/2/18 on Gnar and Gangplank respectively.
Don’t look now but with Summit on the starting roster, FPX are undefeated, and if the season ended today, they would actually be in the playoffs as the 10th seed.
EDG’s inconsistency may cost them a chance to defend their Worlds 2021 title
The reigning world champions Edward Gaming made no changes to their main roster as they headed into 2022 looking to run it back with the team that led the organization to its first ever world title. But after a shaky spring split that saw them bow out of the playoffs in seventh place, questions arose as to the primary reason why.
The answer is EDG’s inconsistency.
So far in the 2022 LPL summer split, EDG have been near the top of the standings but have not looked like contenders. That’s because EDG have either barely scraped by against opponents they should be beating cleanly or just flat-out losing to teams around their level.
At times, the team has fired on all cylinders, but those have been in individual games and not an entire series. Their woes have continued so far in Week 5 as they actually dropped a series to Oh My God, a team that heading into the match was on the outside looking in on the playoff picture. AD carry Park “Viper” Do-hyeon played well in the series picking up player of the game in Game 2, but the rest of EDG didn’t show up.
The talent is obviously there, but with the team just a shell of their Worlds 2021 version, EDG need to quickly figure things out before it’s too late.
