LPL 2022 Summer Week 3 marquee matchup preview: V5 vs RNG

The 2022 League of Legends Pro League is entering into the middle part of Week 3 during their 2022 summer split with the must-watch match of the week coming up shortly. Two of the best teams in the LPL, one of the old guard and one of the new, are set to face off on Saturday. Here is a look at what to expect when Victory Five squares off against Royal Never Give Up.

Tale of the tape

Both V5 and RNG are coming into this matchup as two of the best teams in the entire LPL. RNG are the reigning Mid-Season Invitational champions as well as the 2022 LPL spring split winners. V5 are no slouches either, as they ended the 2022 LPL spring regular season in first place with an incredible 14-2 record.

V5 also placed three of their members onto the 2022 LPL spring all-pro first-team with a fourth member on the second team. RNG also placed members onto the spring all-pro teams. Specifically, support player Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming ended up as the first-team support while their mid-laner Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao picked up second-team honors.

So far in the 2022 LPL summer season, both teams are undefeated, with RNG winning their first two contests against Weibo Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix. V5 is 3-0 in their first three series, as they have taken down a trio of lower-tiered teams in ThunderTalk Gaming, LGD Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix.  Although those wins were all with their back-up mid laner, rookie Tan “Dream” Wen-Xiang. RNG are also playing with a new player in Chen “Breathe” Chen. He joined the team thanks to a swap with Bilibili Gaming for Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin over.

As for their past meeting, V5 swept RNG in their spring series 2-0. They did not face off in the playoffs.

V5 path to victory

V5 are playing well early on in the split, which is actually a surprise since they are without 2022 LPL spring MVP Song “Rookie” Eui-jin. Rookie has been absent from the V5 roster due to COVID-19 related quarantine.

Due to that fact, V5 have fielded their rookie mid laner Dream, who has actually been lights out in his first six games in China’s top league. According to Oracleselixer.com, Dream leads all mid laners in KDA with an insane 13.4 and also leads all mid laners in CS per minute and earned gold per minute. In those six games, he was chosen as player of the game twice, too.

For V5 to defeat RNG, Dream is going to have to keep the momentum going against one of the best mid-laners of all time, Xiaohu.

RNG path to victory

RNG might be undefeated so far, but they are playing a little sluggish since coming off of their second straight MSI championship. They went Game 3 both times in their first two series.

RNG are also playing with their new top laner Breathe, who has only been with the team for a couple of weeks. However, in RNG’s last game against WBG, Breathe showed off why the team wanted him so badly by dismantling Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok” on Sejuani, of all champions.

For RNG to defeat V5, they will have to play as they did in Game 3 of that WBG series. But if they play like they did in Game 2 of that very series, V5 should come out on top.