The 2022 League of Legends Pro League is entering into the middle part of Week 5 during the 2022 LPL summer split with the must-watch match of the week coming up shortly. Two of the top teams in the league are about to throw down, both looking to ride momentum into the second half of the split. Here is what to expect when Top Esports take on Royal Never Give Up on Saturday.
Tale of the tape
Both teams are entering this Week 5 contest with nearly spotless records. TES are 6-1 in series so far in the 2022 LPL summer split with an impressive 13-4 game record as they sit in second place in the standings. RNG are not too far behind them as they have a 4-1 series record and sit in sixth, mainly due to lack of total games played. TES’s lone series loss was back in Week 1 when they were defeated at the hands of JD Gaming. Since then, TES has rattled off six straight wins against good teams like Weibo Gaming and LNG Esports.
RNG are coming off their second straight Mid-Season Invitational victory and are starting off the summer season expectedly slow, especially with the introduction of Chen “Breathe” Chen to their team. With the squad playing catch up with the rest of the league, RNG still have managed to come out on top in four of their first five series. However, all four of their first four series went to Game 3. But they did manage to go to Game 3 against Victory Five, the only currently undefeated team in the LPL.
TES and RNG have matched up multiple times during 2022 most notably in the 2022 LPL spring playoffs where RNG defeated TES 3-1 in the upper bracket finals and then beat them again in the grand finals 3-2.
TES path to victory
Sick play after sick play, but knight makes the unbelievable happen! #LPL pic.twitter.com/yrDlCcjsjy
— LPL (@lplenglish) July 2, 2022
For TES to come out on top, they are going to have to rely on the resurgence of Zhuo “knight” Ding. Knight, who has been one of the best mid-laners in the region over the last few years. He is coming off a poor spring season by his standards as he did not claim a single award, not even a player of the week.
But so far in the 2022 LPL summer seasons, Knight has shown he is back in prime form. He is currently tied for second in player of the game honors in the league and came off his best week of the year in Week 4 taking home player of the week honors for his incredible performance against LNG and their current MVP leader Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang. In that series, Knight posted a combined 15/0/18 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) against the best performing mid-laner in the region.
Knight has another tough task in front of him when he goes up against Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao but if he plays like he did against LNG, TES will extend their win streak to seven.
RNG path to victory
RNG’s edge in the matchup against TES comes from their best-in-region bot lane of Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming and Chen “GALA” Wei. The duo showcased their strength at the Mid-Season Invitational, and after their latest series against Ultra Prime, they look to be in peak form. Although knight went off against LNG, GALA went berserk against UP going a combined 18/0/19 in the two-game set. He didn’t pick up both player of the game honors because his support Ming picked up the other as he also went nuts going 1/4/34 in the two-game series.
PENTA! GALA can’t be stopped! #LPL pic.twitter.com/oNkm47dK3D
— LPL (@lplenglish) July 4, 2022
This bot lane is the scariest in the league at the moment and TES’ bot lane isn’t that much better than UP’s. If GALA and Ming can gap the TES duo of Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo and Ling “Mark” Xu, then RNG will be in good shape to claim their third straight series win not only in the 2022 LPL summer split but against TES too.
Published: Jul 6, 2022 05:09 pm