The 2022 League of Legends Pro League season is finally back with the 2022 LPL summer split. After a very quick two weeks of action, there are a ton of interesting things developing throughout the league. Here are the lessons we learned from Week 1 and 2 of China’s top league.
JDG looks like Contenders
During the back half of the 2022 LPL spring split, JD Gaming recaptured some of the magic the organization had during their 2020 season, when they made it all the way to the quarterfinals at Worlds 2020. After starting off the spring season with a poor 5-5 record, JDG rattled off six series wins in a row against some of the best teams in the league, including regular season champions Victory 5. After finishing in fourth place in the 2022 LPL spring playoffs, JDG was looking to keep their momentum going heading into the summer split, and so far they have.
Three series into the summer season, JDG sits at the top of the LPL with a 3-0 series record and a 6-2 record in overall games. It’s not like they’re just bullying the bottom teams either — in two of those three series, JDG went up against defending Worlds 2021 champions Edward Gaming and 2022 LPL spring finalists Top Esports. JDG has already defeated both of those teams in the first two weeks of the season; a great start to their summer.
Doinb is in peak form
LNG Esports is the other 3-0 team after the first two weeks of the 2022 LPL summer split. Coming into the 2022 season with an even better roster on paper than they had at Worlds 2021, LNG had high expectations this year; especially with new superstar mid-laner Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang. Doinb was expected to help bring the team closer to capturing a world championship, but that didn’t happen in the 2022 LPL spring split. Doinb looked terrible in the spring season, which was a major reason why the team prematurely bowed out of the playoffs.
However, in the summer split, Doinb is so far playing at a much higher level. LNG has played a total of eight games across their three series wins, winning six of those eight. In those six wins, Doinb was named player of the game for four of them — making him the series leader in player accolades so far.
FPX is in trouble, but it’s not all doom and gloom
FunPlus Phoenix might not have had the highest expectations heading into the 2022 season, mainly due to the team losing Doinb in the off-season. However, the team definitely still had eyes on them after they rebuilt their roster with quality talent. The team acquired two of the best Korean free agents in Kim “Clid” Tae-min and Kim “Gori” Tae-woo, and also promoted their young phenom top laner Ping “Xiaolaohu” Xiao-Hu after Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon left the team. This year’s spring split had its ups and downs for FPX, as they barely squeezed into the playoffs with an 8-8 record before getting bounced in the first round by EDG. Not satisfied with their performance, management decided to make moves heading into the summer split. Gori was replaced by “Care” and the team recently acquired Park “Summit” Woo-tae to give Xiaolaohu some competition; moves that have not helped FPX at all so far.
The team is 0-3 to start of the LPL 2022 summer split and sits at the bottom of the standings, but their 2-6 game record is ironically their bright side. Despite losing 2-0 to Invictus Gaming, another down-on-their-luck team, they started to show promise against two LPL powerhouses, EDG and the defending Mid-Season Invitational champions, Royal Never Give Up. FPX managed to push both of those teams to Game 3, but ultimately still came up short. With Summit heading to FPX and Care getting comfortable in the starting mid-lane position, there is still time for FPX to right the ship. However, being having three losses this early in the season means they are going to need to figure things out fast.
