The League of Legends Pro League has just wrapped up its second week of the LPL 2022 spring split. Week 2 brought some surprises and, of course, some more of the same coming off of Week 1. But the action-packed week had a lot of important takeaways. Here are the lessons we learned from the LPL 2022 spring split Week 2.
V5 have arrived
In the three years of Victory Five’s existence as a member of the LPL, they have only had one split with a winning record, which was the summer of 2020. Outside of that one split, V5 have had a combined record of 15-63. Oh, and they also went winless in their last split in the summer of 2021. V5 have been the laughing stock of the LPL for years. But heading into 2022, they cleaned house and started over. Over the offseason, they quietly put together a team of solid veterans led by the acquisition of former world champion Song “Rookie” Eui-jin.
Two weeks into the LPL 2022 spring split V5 are putting the victory back into their name. They currently sit at 3-0 in the standings with all of their wins coming against 2021 summer split playoff teams. Their most impressive win was their last one, which was against Top Esports who have been an early favorite to win the LPL 2022 spring split after their Demacia Cup victory. In that series V5 managed to reverse 2-0 TES with Rookie taking home player of the game honors in the decisive Game 3. V5 will have another tough opponent as they square off against Weibo Gaming in Week 3.
Don’t sleep on Ultra Prime
V5 haven’t been the only laughing stock in the LPL recently. Ultra Prime, who were formerly known as eStar had a terrible 2021. In the spring split, eStar went 2-14 and when the rebrand happened in the summer split, they celebrated with a 5-11 record. Like V5, UP made big changes in the off-season. They picked up Royal Never Give Up mid-laner Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei and also picked up stand-out bot laner Zhao “Elk” Jia-Hao from Team WE. With a new roster, things were looking up for UP, but unfortunately their early-season schedule so far in the LPL 2022 spring split has been brutal.
Their first three matches of the split were against the arguable three favorites to win the LPL 2022 spring split. After getting 2-0’d by LNG Esports to open the season, UP turned heads in their second match against TES where UP forced a Game 3 before falling 2-1. UP showed that their series against TES wasn’t a fluke as they also took the defending Worlds 2021 champs, Edward Gaming, to Game 3 as well before eventually losing 2-1. Despite the 0-3 record UP looked good. Their final match of Week 2 came against LGD Gaming where they finally got a one in the win column. UP might be 1-3, but with two easy matchups coming up against Invictus Gaming and Anyone’s Legend, UP can be right in the thick of the playoff race soon.
The LPL is crowded at the top but EDG and LNG are a step above
The LPL is a 17-team league which means there is bound to be a couple of substantially bad teams and a couple of stand-out ones. But so far in the LPL 2022 spring split, there seems to be a lot of stand-out teams. Currently, in the standings at the time of this article’s publishing, there are seven teams that are 3-1 or better. With less than one game separating first and seventh, it may be hard to gauge team strength. However, there are two teams that have been better than even their undefeated record shows.
LNG and EDG are not only 4-0 in series, they are both 8-1 in games. For reference, RNG is third with a 4-1 record but have four-game losses. EDG and LNG haven’t had the hardest of schedules. However, they have made quick work of nearly every single opponent they have played against. EDG and LNG were at the top of the standings for nearly the entire LPL 2021 summer split and they have picked up right where they left off.
