This article is part of our LoL Previews series.
Once again it is time for the greatest teams in the LPL to assemble and settle who amongst them is the greatest. The LPL playoffs are at hand, and to date they have failed to do aught but mesmerize the crowd, as some of the greatest players in the world battle for the opportunity to represent China on the world stage and to unseat the reigning champion. This year, that champion is the team best known for giving SKT T1 their first international loss in recent memory, Royal Never Give Up. Their opposition has only grown stronger in the past few months, nurtured by their jealousy of the Dragon Cup that goes only to the LPL champion.
Before we go into the teams, though, we must first address the unorthodox layout of the tournament. The LPL playoffs are like something of a hybridization between the traditional bracket structure utilized by the NA and EU LCS and the gauntlet style tournaments that Korea are so well known for. Effectively, the tournament is two gauntlets that then meet in the grand finals, one with Royal Never Give Up seeded into the semi-finals, the other with their biggest rivals, Edward Gaming. The respective gauntlets are then run by the other teams that qualified for the playoffs based on their rankings. At the time of this writing, the first round has already ended, eliminating Game Talents and Invictus Gaming, narrowing the pool of teams (all of whom will be henceforth referred to by their in-game abbreviations) down to Edward Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, World Elite, Snake, IMAY, and Vici Gaming, all of whom are competing for the World's berth and fame that comes with taking the LPL.
The Defenders: Royal Never Give Up
The obvious first team to examine is the defending champions themselves, RNG. Likely the most visible of the teams competing internationally thanks to their recent showing at Mid Season-Invitational and the relative absence of EDG from the world stage for the last year, RNG will quickly have to come to terms with a very unsettling truth: that despite being the defending champions they are in no way the favorites to take the title. While the brackets more or less ensure that RNG will make a finals appearance thanks to them rolling the much weaker bracket, no matter who makes it out of the upper bracket, RNG will be the underdog come the finals.
While both WE and EDG have visibly improved since the end of the last split, RNG has mostly languished since then, despite the high profile acquisition of Uzi during the offseason. Their record might not indicate it, but the line-up faces some very real challenges thanks to a shifting meta that's hostile to their overbearing jungler, the famed Liu "mlxg" Shi-yu, as well as an obvious loss of synergy in the lineup after Wang "Wuxx" Chen got the axe at the end of MSI. RNG may only have dropped two series all split, but those were incredibly important ones: a 2-0 clean sweep by EDG in their sole meeting, and a convincing 2-1 victory by WE the most recent time the teams met, with their previous meeting having been a very close 2-1 the other way. It's almost certain that one of those teams will walk into the arena and try to steal RNG's crown, and right now they look better poised to take it, than RNG look to defend.
The issues with RNG's lineup in many ways stem from their own strengths, or rather the fact that their individual strengths as players has long eclipsed their need to focus on developing coherent strategies or synergy in game. Against most opponents, sheer star power is enough to carry them through, and so why bother with more? Unfortunately, their humiliating loss to WE near the end of the season at the end of a string of shaky matches all but proves that RNG is going to need to make a change, and their bottom lane is a good place to start. In order to facilitate the very aggressive playstyle that Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao favors, Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong has changed his support pool nearly entirely, changing over from his roaming playmaking style of champion into the more lane-dominant mages. While this has worked out well for helping Uzi top the CS charts, it has put a complete hold on the aggressive skirmishes that used to get RNG their victories, and the enemy seems all too willing to capitalize on RNG's now aggressive bottom lane with teleport pressure and jungle ganks, something that was very difficult to manage against the notoriously safe Wuxx. If RNG lose a game, it often starts on the bottom side of the map, and that will be the greatest danger to RNG's chances of defending their crown moving forward, as both Kim "Deft" Hyuk-kyu and Seong-jun "Mystic" Jin are eager to prove that Uzi's spotlight is better shone on them.
All's not lost for RNG, though, as there are some definite advantages they have coming into the playoffs, few though they may be. First and most importantly, recent patches have made lane swaps a near impossibility, forcing enemy teams to face RNG's bottom lane head on, a situation that may well prove beneficial for RNG, especially if WE prove to be their eventual opponents. Secondly, provided they choose to prioritize him, Jang "Looper" Hyeong-seok remains the most dominant top laner in the league. While Chang-Yu "957" Ke has had some downright inspired plays, it remains true that giving Looper a lead is the fastest way to lose a game in the LPL. Whether these advantages can make up for their shortcomings will be the story of the finals, but if RNG is good for anything it's for putting on a good show, no matter who walks away with the crown.
The Challengers: World Elite, Edward Gaming
Two names have risen to the top over the course of the regular season to challenge the dominance of RNG: Edward Gaming and World Elite. To be clear, both of these teams have a decided advantage against the reigning champions in a straight best-of-five, though for reasons that are entirely divergent.
Edward Gaming is perhaps the only team in the league that can actually compete pound for pound with the raw talent that RNG deploys, though perhaps that's solely because of the way RNG deploys said talents. Mata and Uzi proved no match for Deft and Tian "meiko" Ye during their last meeting, a mismatch that left RNG unable to do much of anything against EDG as their strategies still revolved entirely around Uzi, as they still mostly do. While neither Lee "Scout" Ye-Chan nor Chen "mouse" Yu-Hao might be the match of their lane opponent, they're serviceable enough to not feed outright, especially now that the changing jungle meta has largely left mlxg in the dust, ensuring that RNG's ace solo lanes have less tools to play with. Once the game wears on, it's been historically proven that RNG aren't the match of EDG even as far back as last split's finals, where RNG largely won thanks to their stronger early games and lost any game that entered the late game on even terms.
EDG need not compete with only RNG, though, as the other primary favorite is in their own bracket, the ascendant World Elite. After a meteoric second half of the split that culminated with a shocking 2-1 victory over the slumping RNG, most were happy to give WE the title of the second best team in the league, stripping it from RNG in the process. Their clinical late game and focus on dragon control has served them well in a meta that has been constantly slowing down and making it easier for them to pass the 35 minute mark where they historically shine. Further, changes in the meta seem to benefit WE more than anyone else. The more defensive ADC/Support lineups that have become popular, suits Mystic just fine, while the tanky teamfight junglers that are once again taking root are perfect for Ren-Jie "Condi" Xiang's more farm and objective oriented style. Unfortunately for WE, though, many of their strengths are shared by the very team they must beat to get to the finals, EDG. The only precedent we have for how this match will play itself out is the 2-0 shellacking that EDG gave WE during the cross-group games, but that series was very illustrative of what we can expect going forward. Simply put, EDG played WE's game but better, and without many of the early game weaknesses that WE have shown throughout the split. Still, WE has only gotten better since then, while EDG has largely stayed the same thanks to their relatively easy group, meaning that this match is far from over. If WE can overcome the villains of the LPL, then we may well be treated to one of the more entertaining finals in LPL history, as WE an RNG's strengths and weaknesses are interestingly matched.
If EDG make it into the finals, however, I would simply point the reader's attention to the last time RNG and EDG met, and how one-sided that series was.
The Rest: IMAY, Vici Gaming
To call either of these teams an underdog would be an understatement in and of itself; it's quite possible that neither manage to take even a single game off their opponents in the second round. Still, most would have said that either team would have struggled to make it out of Round 1, and yet both completely ran over their opposition, taking their respective series in 3 games (though Vici still ended 3-1 due to the free win that Game Talents received for seeding purposes).
Vici has long remained one of the biggest mysteries in the LPL, evocative of a team like Incredible Miracle in the LCK: a team that struggles to demonstrate even a small percentage of the dominance expected of them. On paper, Vici is an excellent team, especially when Easyhoon is comfortable in the meta and can play fast and loose. In practice, the team has languished the last couple splits, and the very fact they made it this far into the event could well be considered a testament to the inconsistencies of the team's around them as opposed to any demonstration of their skill. Moving forward in the event, Vici finds themselves in much the same dilemma that WE does: their bracket is packed with teams that play nearly the same style of slow-paced, team-oriented League that they do, except all those other teams have proven that they do it better. If Vici is going to make anything of themselves in the finals, it will be on the back of Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-hoon -- a situation they should be familiar with by now -- but the meta seems increasingly hostile to the Vici mid laner. Picks like Azir, Viktor, and Lissandra that are comfortable for him are quickly being phased out for picks like LeBlanc and even Syndra, making it unclear where the ace mid laner will make his impact. If Vici want to survive, he'll have to prove that he has more tricks up his sleeve than are readily apparent.
On the other side of the bracket, IMAY finds themselves in much the same situation, though they have the luxury of a much more forgiving immediate opponent in Snake Gaming, a team with just as many obvious flaws as IMAY themselves. The fast pace that IMAY enjoys should serve them just fine against Snake, provided they don't fall far behind in the early game where Snake has proven themselves to be a dominant force. IMAY's brash and aggressive teamfights should allow them to run Snake over, though, as the most crucial element of an LPL match has somehow remained Snake's achilles heel for the last year. Whether the same can be said of their chances against RNG is an entirely different matter. To put it bluntly, RNG can be said to be what IMAY would look like if all their players were upgraded, making it fairly unlikely that they'll steal the finals appearance from the reigning champions. If IMAY wish to take down RNG, they need to hope that RNG implodes against them -- a situation that certainly wouldn't be unique at all. Barring some crucial mistake by the RNG side, though, IMAY's dreams of hoisting the trophy should end the moment they take the field against them, as the fast-tempo skirmish-heavy playstyle they share favors the team that can best execute at any given moment, an advantage that certainly lies in RNG's court.
