If you had asked someone at the start of the year which two LPL teams would meet in the Spring Split Finals, they probably would have said Edward Gaming and Royal Never Give Up. These are the two most storied teams in China, and their reputation proceeds them. You wouldn’t have thought that if you had watched most of the regular season though.
Royal Never Give Up finished in third-place in the East Division. The team had to run the gauntlet in order to get to this point, but they did so rather impressively. RNG was able to easily handle both Team World Elite and Snake Esports before upsetting Invictus Gaming in order to grab a spot in the final.
Edward Gaming had a much simpler path to the final. EDG finished first in the West Region, earning them an automatic spot in the semifinal. There, they didn’t get too much of a challenge from Rogue Warriors, beating them 3-1.
LPL China 2018 Spring Split Finals Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
Royal Never Give Up -167
Edward Gaming +122
Edward Gaming has won five of the last eight LPL titles, but they are an underdog coming into this series. EDG lost to Royal Never Give Up in the regular season, and the side’s win over Rogue Warriors was its first against one of the top teams in China all year.
Will Kai’Sa be banned away?
This is one of the big questions for me heading into this series. Kai’Sa is a polarizing champion. In the right hands, she is absolutely deadly. Kingzone DragonX was able to beat Afreeca Freecs for the LCK Spring Split Championships largely because of Pray’s play on Kai’Sa. A few days later, we saw Griffin use the champion perhaps even more effectively against MVP, and there seemed to be no doubt about her power.
For whatever reason, IG thought that they would be able to counter her and left her open for RNG’s Uzi to take in their semifinal match. That was a mistake. RNG almost won the first game of the series, and ended up winning the next two before IG banned the champion away. The damage had already been done though, leading to RNG upsetting IG.
Edward Gaming thought the same thing as IG, but they changed tack quicker. In their semifinals series against Rogue Warriors, they left Kai’Sa open and Smlz grabbed it for the first two games. EDG was able to bully the champion in the laning phase of the first game, but she nearly led Rogue Warriors back from an overwhelming gold deficit in the second game. After that, they banned her for the last two matches.
It seems obvious for EDG to ban her away in this series, but they may think they have a way to stop her. Kai’Sa can be beaten in the laning phase and constant early pressure will put her behind.
Will Clearlove play?
Clearlove is one of the best junglers in the world, and he is arguably the best jungler in the LPL. He has been on EDG for all five of their LPL championships and has been viewed as the team’s lynchpin.
After grinding for so long, Clearlove decided that he needed to take an extended break. He sat out for virtually the entire regular season and has only played in four games all split. Clearlove played in the final regular season series against Bilibili Gaming and then was used in the series-clinching game against Rogue Warriors in the semifinals.
It’s clear that Clearlove is still talented enough to make a difference, but the team has played with Haro in the jungle all year long. It will be interesting to see what EDG does with him in this series.
Prediction
Although he is the most gifted AD Carry in the world, Uzi has never won an LPL title. He has finished runner-up numerous times and the inability to win it all clearly bothered him last summer after RNG fell short once more.
I think he will fall short one more time. Provided EDG don’t decide to leave Kai’Sa open, I think Scout and Meiko will have a great series in leading the team to another LPL title.
