After a two-week break, the League of Legends Pro League is back in action. The final four of the LPL 2022 spring playoffs is about to commence. There are two marquee matchups that should produce some quality League of Legends as the LPL inches closer to crowning a new champion. Here is a preview of the LPL 2022 spring playoffs fourth round with predictions on who will come out on top.
Victory5 vs Top Esports
Victory Five are the Cinderalla story of the 2022 LPL spring season, but make no mistake: They are not the underdogs anymore. Their fairy tale season has been nothing short of a miracle. But over the course of the 2022 spring season so far, they have shown that their success is no fluke. From last to first, V5 with a completely retooled roster have taken the LPL by storm.
As a result, V5 entered the LPL 2022 spring playoffs as the first seed, and it wasn’t particularly close. With a 14-2 record, V5 have sat on the throne uncontested for weeks. They also have three of the five All-LPL 2022 spring players on their team, including the MVP, Song “Rookie” Eui-jin. Their record granted them a three-round bye and as a result, have not played a single playoff match this far. In fact, they have not played a match in nearly three weeks.
As for their opponent, Top Esports, they have been in the playoff gauntlet for the past two rounds but haven’t really been battle-tested. TES came into the season with high expectations after they made changes to their roster as well. Their biggest acquisition of the offseason came with former Worlds champion Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang coming over from FunPlus Phoenix. But the biggest star on their team has been their rookie sensation in the top lane Huang “Wayward” Ren-Xing. He not only won rookie of the split but was also the only TES player to land on an All-LPL team.
But don’t let the lack of 2022 accolades fool you, this team has been good for a majority of the split. TES went 9-1 in their last 10 series to close out the spring split. The only other team to match their pace in that time span was V5 themselves who also went 9-1 in their final 10 series. TES then proceeded to walk right past Bilibili Gaming and LNG Esports to get their match against V5.
In a battle of the two hottest teams in the league, one has to favor the team who has shown no faults. Although TES have been red hot, V5 has been hotter for longer and even though some may say they are too well-rested, there is no reason to doubt that V5 cant continue their dominance, especially with Rookie playing like the best player in the world.
V5 3 – 1 TES
Royal Never Give Up vs JD Gaming
Teams don’t get to the final four of the LPL playoffs without getting hot. While the two other teams in the other winner’s semifinal matchups are the two hottest teams in the LPL, Royal Never Give Up and JD Gaming are no slouches.
When it comes to JDG’s case, the argument can actually be made that they are the hottest in the league. That is despite not boasting a 9-1 record in the last 10 matches. That’s because to end the regular season, JDG actually owned the longest winning streak in the LPL with six straight wins. Their first series that sparked the six-series win streak actually came against V5. JDG ended the regular season the third seed in the LPL. JDG is also led by the resurgence of the LPL 2020 spring MVP Seo “Kanavi” Jin-hyeok who is back in his peak form. The team was battle-tested in their last playoff match against Weibo Gaming. But managed to come out on top in a close 3-2 series.
As for RNG, they are the second seed in this split’s playoff bracket. This is thanks to their fantastic first half of the regular season. The reigning Mid-Season Invitational champions are looking good heading into their first playoff match of the LPL 2022 spring season. However, their last couple of weeks of the regular season have been bumpy. Credit to RNG, they didn’t collapse like some of the other top teams in the LPL during the back half of the split. But it wasn’t smooth sailing either.
After starting 6-1, RNG went 6-3 the rest of the way. But a 12-4 record was still good enough for second. Their last week of the season netted them a 2-0 week but three-game series against Oh My God! didn’t create momentum heading into the playoffs. With that said, RNG are an elite team in terms of talent. And on their best days, RNG has the arguable best players in the LPL at every role.
This series is a hard one to predict. On one hand, JD Gaming have looked clean in the last half of the season while RNG was playing sloppy. But with ample time to prepare and with JD Gaming coming off a victory that saw them pushed to the brink, one has to like RNG’s experience as they have been here before and succeeded. RNG should be able to squeeze out a win but this series is most likely a coin flip either way.
RNG 3 – 2 JDG.
