The LPL has kicked off and some teams have already played two games. Due to the high intensity, seven days a week format of the Chinese league, our first LPL Power Rankings will cover weeks one and two. Our list includes what we believe to be the best 10 teams (out of a possible 17) based on the games that have kicked off the season.
Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk didn’t think his quadra kill, with which he closed out his first game against Bilibili Gaming (BLG), was satisfactory enough, so he decided to end the last game of his debut series with a Pentakill. This is quite a statement for any player to make. Despite the fact that they dropped a game to BLG, my faith has not been lost in JD Gaming (JDG) to put in dominant performances throughout the remainder of the Spring split.
BLG, with the likes of Chen “Bin” Ze-Bin and Zeng “Yagao” Qi, have showed they may well be a playoffs-calibre team. However, while I don’t think a 2-1 loss to JDG is anything but respectable given the power of the JDG team, dropping a game to FunPlus Phoenix (FPX) might be a sign that this team hasn’t got its synergy entirely set yet. This doesn’t alter my initial expectation for BLG’s eventual standing, however, as this is the first week of the Spring split and a lot can change in the coming weeks.
While Invictus Gaming’s (IG) victory over Anyone’s Legend raises no eyebrows, their victory against Lin “Tangyuan” Yu-Hong and his teammates casts doubts on Royal Never Give Up (RNG). Could this be an early warning sign that losing Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao to Weibo Gaming will impact RNG's overall placement in the league more than initially thought?
It’s a little early to overreact, though, and I still expect RNG to finish in the top five, although I will be keeping a closer eye on them, especially the impressive An “Ahn” Shan-ye. When it came to playing weaker teams such as Oh My God (OMG), RNG remained untroubled.
In similar fashion, Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) simply outclassed Ultra Prime with back-to-back Zeri and Yuumi games. These saw NiP’s Support player, Wang “Zhuo” Xu-Zhuo, go deathless in a dominating fashion. On the topic of clean sweeps, LNG Esports’ Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong pulled off an impressive baron steal to secure victory over ThunderTalk Gaming.
Rare Atom and LGD Gaming also clashed this week. After a hard-fought three-game series, Rare Atom managed to edge out LGD Gaming to earn an initial 1-0 win-loss record.
- Read: LPL Spring Split Preview
After going winless for the entirety of the LPL Summer split in 2022, it must have been amazing for Team WE as an organisation to take down FPX in their opening series. However, it wasn’t long for business to return to normal, in the face of the much stronger Mid-laner Chu “FoFo” Chun-Lan. The EDward Gaming (EDG) player only fell once in the two-game series, as he put a swift end to Team WE’s brief, but sweet, honeymoon period.
Weibo Gaming were the last team to play their opening match, debuting their roster against TES. This game had the feeling it could go either way, and although I favour TES for the final standings, I think Weibo Gaming are a team capable of challenging for the top of the league. An impressive performance from Weibo Gaming, especially from their bot lane duo Wang “Light” Guang-Yu and Liu “Crisp” Qing-Song in game three, had them close out the series 2-1.
The most surprising thing about the series was that, if not for Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok picking Nidalee and seemingly gifting away game two, the series might not have been as close as it was. Weibo Gaming have certainly come out swinging.
