The LoL Pro League playoffs always deliver, regardless of whether you're looking for constant skirmishing, mechanical outplays, or unlikely upsets. These first two rounds of the 2020 LPL Summer playoffs were no exception.
Here are some highlights from this past week in the LPL, along with an update of which teams can still qualify for the world championship.
Championship points check-in!
In last week's championship points check-in, we established that both JD Gaming and Top Esports will qualify for worlds if they win their respective semifinals, either by championship points (making it to the final) or by winning summer. This remains true and with both FunPlus Phoenix and Invictus Gaming already eliminated from playoff contention, it makes JDG and TES' qualifications all the more likely.
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The only team that can surpass JDG in championship points now, even if JDG lose all of their remaining playoff series, is TES if TES were to beat them in the third/fourth-place match or place higher. This is because the other two remaining semifinalists, LGD Gaming and Suning, did not have any championship points from 2020 LPL Spring and the highest amount of points they can earn from summer is 90 for finishing second overall.
With their first and second round losses, FPX and iG are now locked into the lower bracket regional finals match. At least one of these teams will not make this year's world championship. The remaining six teams from the LPL that can qualify for worlds are JDG, TES, LGD, Suning, iG and FPX.
FunPlus Phoenix and Tian's Lillia fascination
Victory Five beat Funplus Phoenix 3-1 in the first playoff round and while V5 were favored by most in this matchup, it was still somewhat surprising to see the reigning world champions taken out so definitively and so early in the playoff bracket.
The FPX starting top lane discussion has occupied a lot of the FPX narrative this year -- it's been mentioned in previous LPL Corner columns, on the LPL English broadcast, and across multiple social media platforms. It's worth reiterating, especially after their loss, that most of FPX's more recent problems have come from decreased synergy between jungler Gao "Tian" Tian-Liang and mid laner Kim "Doinb" Tae-sang. Support Liu "Crisp" Qing-Song has also looked off for most of the split, meaning that both FPX's mid/jungle and jungle/support synergy have been lackluster compared to the aggressive early skirmishing that characterized 2019 FPX.
Part of FPX's answer was to put Tian on Lillia. They heavily prioritized Lillia in Games 1 and 2, picking her first rotation on red side. The general reasons to pick Lillia are her fast clear speed as well as her damage, and these are both qualities that would help Tian make more early proactive plays, especially around mid or bot. In Game 1, Tian's Lillia was off to a good start after a Level 1 red buff invade that netted Tian V5's red buff and first blood. These early advantages also translated to bot lane, but were evened out by another invade where V5 collapsed onto Tian and killed him. Tian got First Blood again in Game 2 off of Doinb's mid lane pressure, killing V5 mid laner Li "Mole" Hao-Yan. In both cases, the Lillia was unable to make an impact mid to late, or translate any early advantages into game wins. Lillia seems like the perfect champion that LPL teams would be able to make work due to their early aggression and skirmishing tendencies, but it did not work for Tian in the playoffs.
FPX's Game 3 win came off of the back of an increased top lane focus with Kim "GimGoon" Han-seam on Jax. Last week I had posited that one of ways that FPX could beat V5 was to pressure V5 top Yu "Biubiu" Lei-Xin by starting Kim "Khan" Dong-ha. By placing GimGoon on a stronger carry, FPX tested this theory and it proved successful until V5 put Biubiu on Lucian in Game 4 and relied on him to carry them to the next playoff round.
A fond farewell to Victory Five
Regardless of who wins the finals, Victory Five were the story of 2020 LPL Summer. At the very beginning of the season, Mole expressed gratitude that they had won a series and weren't going to have another winless split. By the end of the split, V5 had an 11-5 series record and were a playoff team. Even with the caveat of V5's sweeping midseason roster changes -- Mole was the only remaining spring starter, save a few games from bot laner Wang "y4" Nong-Mo -- it's an impressive improvement.
Support Guo "ppgod" Peng has been the most talked-about addition to V5, especially with their tendency to play through bot lane pressure. Ppgod and Lee "Samd" Jae-hoon contested their lane opponents constantly in the 2v2, often securing their own advantages before jungler Wei "Weiwei" Bo-Han made his way to bot.
Weiwei was one of, if not the best junglers of this summer regular season and alongside Mole allowed V5 to control the map early. This team was incredible at snowballing their advantages, controlling enemy team buffs and setting up for neutral objectives and that started with Weiwei. Top laner Biubiu was one of the most improved players from spring to summer. Mole found his stride in the mid lane, looking far more comfortable now that he wasn't constantly position-swapping (he played every position for V5 in spring) and had a strong jungler to back him up.
V5 were the team to watch this summer. There's no guarantee that this roster will stay together for 2021, although it is worth noting that Mole and ppgod are signed through 2021 and 2022 respectively. Farewell, V5, you were always entertaining, fun, and I'm a bit sad we won't see you at worlds this year.
LGD and Suning rising
Those who watched LGD at the 2015 World Championship know the folly of believing in them. It's not necessarily fair - that was an entirely different roster with different strengths and weaknesses at a very specific time in LPL history - but LGD have made a habit over the years of acquiring strong individual talent and never being able to use those players well. The last time LGD was in LPL playoffs before this year was 2016 LPL Spring where they lost in the first round to Vici Gaming.
Mid laner Su "xiye" Han-Wei was a key pickup for LGD this midseason and was added to the roster along with support Ling "Mark" Xu from Dominus Esports. Top laner Xie "Langx" Zhen-Ying joined from Royal Never Give Up. Led primarily by Xiye and jungler Han "Peanut" Wang-ho LGD had flashes of brilliance but were inconsistent. Even with strong early games, they waffled indecisively in the mid game and had a tendency to pick bad fights, giving over games to their opponents.
So what happened between the regular season and playoffs that made LGD look so strong?
It would be easy to give a flippant "Peanut and Xiye happened" as the answer, but as previously mentioned, Peanut and Xiye were already the standouts in LGD victories. The most important thing is that LGD have seemingly tightened up some of their mistakes and have out-skirmished and out-teamfought both of their LPL playoff opponents thus far.
Maybe part of the answer is that Peanut was able to play Nidalee for two of their three games against iG, but that doesn't negate the massive improvement that LGD seem to have undergone from the final week of the regular season to now. LGD are getting hot at the right time, and are now in a prime position to attend worlds as one of China's top four teams with their destiny in their own hands.
Similarly, Suning -- the team that many called the worst top team in the LPL -- also were one of the best teams of this past weekend. Suning were doubted due to their lack of coordination and overreliance on opponents making massive mid or late-game mistakes, which was a large factor in their 12-4 regular-season record. The most infuriating part about watching Suning was that their individual players were, on the whole, playing well. Bot laner Tang "huanfeng" Huan-Feng was already cited as an up-and-comer to watch. Mid laner Xiang "Angel" Tao arguably had a career split and did a lot with one of the lowest gold-shares in the league.
Against V5, Suning were suddenly playing as a five-man unit. No longer were they waiting for opponents to make mistakes, but they were using their early advantages to coordinate fights and skirmishes. Suning had one of the lowest combined kill per minute rates in LPL summer (0.75) and this ballooned to the highest thus far in LPL playoffs (0.9). For context, the highest in the summer regular season was iG at 0.93.
One late contribution to the Renekton discourse
It's easy to know why pros enjoy playing Renekton. He's fun. He's a lane bully. Popping Dominus and rampaging into an enemy backline feels great. I personally love playing Renekton.
Renekton has become an odd flashpoint of discussion due to there being significantly better champion choices for top lane when it comes to overall team composition and a more idealized run of play. A lot of champions that pros enjoy playing (Lee Sin is another excellent example) come up in similar arguments. Draft is about balancing what pros enjoy playing, what they're best at playing, the context of a team's individual talent, the context of a team's individual playstyle, and the balance of the composition itself.
When Renekton has been left open in LPL playoff drafts, he has been picked first rotation by LPL teams in all series save iG's match with LGD, where he fell through to the second ban round. He has a 100 percent pick/ban rate and a 62.5 percent win rate.
I'm not here to defend all of the first-rotation Renekton picks in an objective vacuum, but Renekton's relative success makes a lot of sense in the context of the LPL. So many of these teams love early skirmishing power and Renekton is perfect for early lane dominance and skirmishing. Another oft-overlooked point in Renekton's favor is an empowered W will destroy opponents' shields, something else that LPL teams love when fighting so frequently and consistently.