2022 LPL Summer regular season finished last weekend with JD Gaming and Top Esports securing the top two places in the league. The most exciting story was JDG’s one, Kanavi and Yagao helped the team get their best regular season result in their history. They will start the playoffs with a great advantage.
With the same 14-2 score, Top Esports finished the league first place due to their game difference advantage over JD Gaming (Top Esports 29-9, JD Gaming 30-12). TES and JDG are the strongest candidates for China’s Worlds 2022 spots right now, with Victory Five and Royal Never Give Up closely following them.
JD Gaming and Top Esports dominated the LPL
While Victory Five and MSI 2022 champion RNG were expected to dominate the LPL, JD Gaming proved to be stronger. With a disappointing end to their impressive spring season, 369, Kanavi, Yagao, Hope and Missing took it one step further to make their Worlds 2022 hopes a reality.
During the spring season, we saw JDG as a late bloomer, starting weak but managing to enter the playoffs from a good position in the end. This time, JDG didn’t need to take things slowly: they went there and took down the favourites one by one. JDG’s only losses were against FunPlus Phoenix who had a rising form at the time, and against Royal Never Give Up, close to the end of the regular season.
Kanavi’s career was meant to be something much bigger, he was pointed out as one of the best junglers in the future. The Korean player enters the LPL Playoffs as the favourite, and winning China’s league means that you are the number one favourite for Worlds 2022 trophy as well. Kanavi definitely deserves to be there.
However, they didn’t finish first, Top Esports did. With young Wayward added, Tian, knight, JackeyLove and Mark managed to enter the playoffs in the most advantageous position possible. Counting them gives goosebumps: superstars like Tian, knight and JackeyLove definitely deserve to attend the tournament in the United States. Together with JDG, they are the favourites.
Tian and JackeyLove won Worlds before, and this is their story of comebacks. However, for knight, it’s not a comeback story. It’s a story of accomplishing what was expected of him, finally. From the moment he started dominating the LPL as a Chinese mid laner with his own meta, knight disappointed at international tournaments. LPL Playoffs won’t be enough for him, he will aim for the Summoners’ Cup.
LPL 2022 Summer Playoffs are starting this week
On August 16, LPL 2022 Summer Playoffs will kick off. Because of the ladder system, the low ranked teams will definitely have problems. But there is another difficulty. Between August 16 and August 28, there will be best-of-five series almost every day except for August 24 and 27. Before the finals, there will be a three day hiatus, but that definitely won’t be enough to take a breath.
Oh My God, Tarzan and Doinb’s LNG Esports, Summit and Clid’s FunPlus Phoenix and Bin’s Bilibili Gaming are strong teams but they will start at the bottom of the ladder, it will be an extreme difficulty. Plus, they will have to go through strong championship candidates like EDward Gaming and Weibo Gaming.
EDG and WBG come right after the four teams, TES, JDG, RNG and V5, naturally. However, even if they are able to take down their first opponent, it will be incredibly difficult for them to take down the next one. Which means that the Worlds 2021 champion will most likely wait for the Regional Finals to take their chance at attending Worlds 2022. That isn’t an easy road either.
RNG and V5, considering their starting point in the playoffs ladder and their performance during the regular season, will probably make it to the double-elimination bracket side of the playoffs. MSI 2022 champion and Rookie’s team should be able to create competition for TES and JDG. EDG and WBG probably won’t be able to do that either, if they somehow make it there.
Make sure to keep an eye on this tight schedule on Luckbox where you can find the breaking news and live streams. Sign up now to claim your 100% bonus before placing your bets on your favourite teams.
