With the holiday break upon us, this is a great time for us to look back on the first five weeks and how teams have been performing. This breakdown will contain brief team overviews along with best team performers along with . Finally I’ll give you some players to continue to look out for the rest of the split! Firstly, we should take a look at the standings for the first 5 weeks!
EDward Gaming (7-0, 7W): EDG is showing us how far team coordination can take a unit. While you have high performers like Viper and Flandre, there are no players who have a KDA below 4.1. Of the teams EDG has faced, they have beaten the likes of FPX, Suning, and JDG. With matches upcoming against BLG, IG, and RNG this will be telling to see how far they take this unbeaten streak. Their team-centric playstyle will carry them far but the real test will be what will happen if the meta moves away from more carry style top laners what will EDG fall back on to? Will they be able to adapt away from their 1-4-0 playstyle they have now?
FunPlus Phoenix (7-1, 6W) After their loss to EDG in their second match, FunPlus Phoenix is the hottest team in the LPL. While they are second in the standings, they lead all teams in kills (293), KD (1.72), and baron control (78%). The best performing ADC in the LPL plays for FPX (Lwx) as well as the hottest jungler (Bo) and plays heavily through teamfights and creating early opportunities to get leads. The next four matches are against the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th teams so we will see where this team truly stacks up moving towards the Spring Playoffs.
Royal Never Give Up (6-1, 1W) RNG looked like the most untouchable team throughout most of the split until their loss to Bilibili Gaming and the narrow victory over Invictus Gaming. In recent matches we have seen aggressive teams, more specifically aggressive junglers, we see RNG beginning to crack under the pressure. When GALA gets time in teamfights to set the pace and output damage while the best support in the league Ming protects him, RNG can compete with anyone and they will need them to step up going into their match against FPX in Week 6.
Team WE (5-3, 3L) Team WE is plummeting in the standings. Much like I had said weeks ago, Team WE were somewhat of a fraudulent first place team for the majority of the Spring Split. They beat up on teams like Rogue Warriors, ThunderTalk, and Victory Five while losing pretty handedly to the hands of Rare Atom, JDG, and RNG. Team WE will make playoffs off the back of their skilled top laner in beishang who is at a 5.8 KDA and has been a dominant force in his role with 69 kills and been part of first blood almost 30% of times his team gets it.
JD Gaming (4-3, 2W) JDG has been an odd team to get a read on. They have lost to some good teams like EDG and TES but have beaten other teams like RA and BLG. They seem more and more like a middle of the pack team who plays decently but not extraordinary. With decent play out of their mid laner Yagao who is sitting at a 4.6 KDA but only has 32 kills in 12 games. The best laner JDG has is their ADC LokeN who usually averages deficits in experience in the early game but he does a great job in keeping up his farming with a 9.9 CSPM. JDG is perfectly in the middle in the LPL in team KD (1.0) and early game rating (46.0) but their strengths lie in the mid to late game where they are 4th in the league (12.3). They will split most of their final games but I expect them to get into the playoffs.
Rare Atom (4-3, 3W) Rare Atom has definitely had their ups and downs the first half of this split. As a team they have found a ton of success in the late game (ranked 5th in the LPL in EGR) but they then consistently fall off a ledge moving into the late game (as are most LPL teams at this point). Against teams like Suning and LGD, they can get a big enough lead to close out games but against teams like EDG, FPX, and LNG they will struggle. I love their mid laner FoFo who is currently at a 4.9 KDA and 36 kills on the split which is almost a quarter of all of Rare Atom’s kills. Their support, Hang, is a solid support who is a pillar of Rare Atom’s success with almost 75% team kill participation and should eclipse 100 assists in their next series against TT.
LNG Esports (4-3, 2L) LNG is trending in the wrong direction at this point with two losses in a row against RA and FPX. Most LPL analysts suspected that LNG was not a top two team as they held that spot for most of the split. Everything plays through icon who is their mid laner with a staggering 76.6% team kill participation. He has 52 kills and only 35 deaths with a KDA just a touch over 4. Tarzan is also one of the better performing junglers in the LPL with a 4.4 KDA and 41 kills. He averages leads in gold and experience at 10 minutes and aggressively moves throughout the map with picks like Hecarim and Olaf. I think LNG will continue to settle to the middle of the pack but should make the playoffs for Spring.
Invictus Gaming (4-4, 1L) Ah, Invictus Gaming, the best/worst team in the LPL. On paper, Invictus Gaming should be an absolute nightmare to play and in most of their losses they have been a tough out. When you watch their matches, you see glaring consistency issues that plague them closing out games. With players like TheShy and Rookie there is a multitude of raw skill for them to work with. While both of these players are 50+ kills a piece, the real carry for this team comes out of the jungle with XUN who has 90 kills and 100+ assists and is a participant in 70% of all IG kills this split. He doesn’t farm well but we see him picking up massive values for DFS because of the massive kill and assist numbers.
Bilibili Gaming (4-4, 1L) Meet IG version 2.0. The flashiest player on the team is Meteor who has a fantastic KDA of 5.2 and almost 70 kills. Against more skillful/aggressive junglers Meteor has struggled but against weaker teams he shines. The Korean import of Aiming has also been a nice addition with the kill leader at 82 and has been up in gold, experience, and csing at 10 minutes. BLG is top 4 in kills for the LPL at 276 but also second in the league in deaths (281). This is a hot and cold team and they will most likely continue to tread water around .500 and most likely pull off some crazy upset in the playoffs but will struggle to go far.
Victory Five (4-4, 1W) Victory Five seems like our most chalk team the LPL has. They have beaten four teams they should beat and lost to four teams they seem like they should lose to. There are not many shining spots on this roster outside of Mole. This is one of the flashiest mid laners in the LPL and his play on his signature Zoe pick is absolutely electric. He has 26% of all of V5’s kills and has 117 assists. The play from the V5 support, ppgod, has also been promising thus far. He has 179 assists (most on team) and just under 70% kill participation. It should be said that in terms of DFS value, the best pick up is their jungler (Weiwei) who leads the team in kills (75) and kill participation (77%) and would be your safest pickup from this lineup on a day to day basis.
TOP Esports (3-3, 1L) We have now tread into the teams who, if the split ended today, would miss the cut for the playoffs. TES has not performed to the same degree as they had last year ranking 9th in kills (203) and 16th in Mid/Late game rating (-20.1). They thrive in the early game having the best early game rating (65.6) and are relatively safe in their play sitting at 2nd fewest deaths (161) but it hasn’t translated to wins. JackeyLove is the core of this team. He has 75 kills and 75 assists and has really been the only player to put up any significant numbers. When enemies have shut down the bottom lane, they shut down the entire team. Their top laner, 369, has been completely underwhelming with a KDA of less than 3 and sub 70 assists. This is not a meta that he thrives in and he a liability for the team.
Suning (3-4, 1L) This may be one of the biggest disappointments for the LPL this year. It appears more and more apparent how much their previous support made a difference. Suning has the 5th best KD ratio in the LPL at 0.73 but has the second worst early game rating at 38.1. Angel (mid) and huanfeng (ADC) are the best performers with both having over a 6 KDA but the production out of ON (support) and more surprisingly yet SofM (jungle). Every role on this team is averaging a gold and experience deficit which is not a recipe for success. If they used the holiday break well they should have a stretch of very winnable games against V5, TT, and RW. Suning could make a play for playoffs but it starts on Monday and there is very little room for error.
ThunderTalk Gaming (2-5, 1W) This is just a very underwhelming roster and they have really struggled to pick up wins. They did steal games against eStar and Victory Five but have really been run off the rift against teams like EDG, FPX, and LNG. The only real person who should be looked at from this team in my opinion is Twila. He has a 3.5 KDA and has 33 kills and 62 assists through 11 games. SamD is TT’s ADC may be a good pickup for DFS with 52 kills and 60+ assists but is very death prone. There are a few opportunities in the last 5 weeks to look for TT wins, but not many.
eStar Gaming (2-6, 5L) We are really starting to get into the more sad teams now. ES has some really good pieces like irma and H4cker but they just can’t put it together. Right now irma is the core of the team roaming across the map picking up kills and assists and participating in 74.2% of all of eStar’s kills while H4cker has a 4.2 KDA and is generally aggressive. Their kill leader right now is rat who is at 78 total kills. Their largest issue are deaths (they are 4th most in the the LPL with 270) and have the worst Baron control (20%) in the LPL. Watching this team looks more like watching 5 individual players rather than one unified team and their record shows that.
LGD Gaming (1-5, 1W) This team is just bad. Flora has the highest team KDA out of the jungle with a 2.8. Their kill and assist leader comes out of the mid lane with Uniboy with 25 kills and 49 assists but he also has 29 total kills. As a team there really isn’t a phase of the game they do well with almost every starter with a gold deficit at 10 minutes and second worst in the LPL in dragon control at a 37%. They just don’t have play makers on this lineup and with matches against LNG and Team WE in Week 7, things could look even worse for this team very quickly.
Oh My God (1-6, 1W) At the beginning of this split I thought there was a way for OMG to outperform the expectations for them. With Aki in the jungle, I thought there could be opportunities for him to snowball his lanes into fast victories. Instead he has a 2.9 KDA (2nd highest on the team) and falls behind over and over again. As a team they struggle with may control and they normally have their jungle camps taken by the enemy (3rd worst in the LPL with a 47.7% jungle control rate).
Rogue Warriors (1-7, 6L) And here is the bottom of the pile. With matchups against EDG and RNG in their next 3 matches, things are looking even worse for this team. RW is last in the LPL in almost every metric but the core of their problems is the fact that they lose so hard in the transition from early game to mid game. They have next to no dragon control (30%- worst in LPL) and lowest baron control rate as well (21%). For a stretch, Forge was a highlight for the team but as the split has played out Haro has become their kill leader with 54 total kills. I would probably suggest avoid picking up anyone from this team until they start proving they can play any early game effectively. Their opening Week 6 match against LGD will be very telling on how they will finish the split.