The first round of the League of Legends Pro League 2022 spring playoffs wrapped up on Sunday. With some rather boring results, Round 2 of the playoffs features two interesting matchups including one that many people didn’t expect halfway through the season. Here is a preview of the LPL 2022 spring playoffs second round with predictions on who will come out on top.
Bilibili Gaming vs Top Esports
Bilibili Gaming are coming off a shaky victory in the first round of the LPL 2022 spring playoffs. They managed to defeat Rare Atom three games to one after dropping Game 1 and moved on. In that series, BLG shared the love when it came to player of the game honors. In each of their three wins, a different player stepped up to carry the team. Liu “Crisp” Qing-Song, Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han and Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan were the three starters that earned the honors, but that doesn’t mean that Chen “Breathe” Chenor and Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan didn’t step up. Doggo in particular looked great on Aphelios, only dying twice in the two games he played on that champion.
Top Esports are their next opponent and look to be a bigger test. After winning the 2021 Demacia Cup before the start of the regular season, TES struggled. It took the team until Week 6 before they started to play like contenders. But when they turned it on, they pushed the pedal to the floor. After starting 4-4, TES ended the regular season on a 7-1 run to earn the fifth seed heading into playoffs. During their run, the team didn’t have a stand-out player doing the heavy lifting. Like BLG, the team relied on the combined strength which includes many veteran players who have been battle-tested even on the Worlds stage. Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo and Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang bring world champion winning experience to the team while having one of the best domestic mid laners in the league with Zhuo “knight” Ding .
In this series, TES are the favorites. That’s because both teams have similar levels of players on their teams at their respective positions with TES edging BLG out in every single one. But if BLG can come out on with their best and if TES plays like they did before Week 7, then BLG has a shot. However, that doesn’t seem likely.
Prediction: TES 3 – 0 BLG
Edward Gaming vs Weibo Gaming
In the battle of the last two LPL teams to make it to Worlds finals, the 2021 champion Edward Gaming squad takes on Weibo Gaming, a team that consists of four of the five starters from Suning 2020 Worlds finals run. The big change for Weibo this year is the addition of legendary top laner Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok. The revamped roster proved to work out well in the first half of the LPL 2022 spring split. Six weeks in WBG sat at the very top of the LPL standings but things went south quickly after. To call the end of their split a collapse would be an understatement. WBG only managed to win two of their last six series and both of them were to teams not even close to the playoff picture. They finished the season as the sixth seed.
EDG’s end to their regular season was not pretty either. Like WBG, EDG also sat at the top of the LPL standings at the middle point of the LPL 2022 spring split. And just like WBG, they collapsed. From 7-1 to 10-6, EDG looked lost during the home stretch of the regular season. EDG however, did end the season on a good note by defeating playoff team Rare Atom in their final match and then in the first round of the playoffs, looked good against FunPlus Phoenix as they breezed past them 3-1.
When both of these teams are playing at their full potential, both are favorites to win the LPL title. But that is a big if. However, EDG have looked a lot better in recent matches and this is still the reigning Worlds 2021 champion in a best of five. It is just too hard to bet against EDG in a best of five. But if WBG can take advantage of a slumping Park “Viper” Do-hyeon and Tian “Meiko” Ye, this series can tip into WBG’s favor.
Prediction: EDG 3 – 1 WBG
