LPL: Top Esports defeats Victory Five, seeds to face RNG in finals
Top Esports defeated Victory Five 3-1 in the 2022 LPL Spring playoffs semifinals on April 20. They are now slated for a rematch against Royal Never Give Up in the grand finals.
V5 was predicted to defeat TES in the semifinals, as the latter had shown a slump in performance in the playoffs and appeared to have difficulty making a comeback once its opposite team leads with two margin-wide points.
TES, V5 semifinals
The early stage of the semifinal had V5 asserting its dominance against TES. The team demonstrated an outstanding play through jungler Hung “Karsa” Hao-Hsuan and support Guo “ppgod” Peng.
With Karsa and ppgod leading the team on the offense, V5 had successfully routed and pushed back the enemy team as the game entered the 26th minute. The rampaging V5 already made 11 kills, while TES only managed one.
Their dominance in the early game resulted in a strong 29-minute victory for V5. However, their fortune ran out as TES composed itself in the next three games.
TES claimed the lead with its early game kills over the enemy team starting in the second game. V5 did put up a fight, especially through top laner Lee “Rich” Jae-won, who limited TES’ gold production.
TES, however, showed its steady progressive come back and would return the favor to the opposite team by killing three of its players at 30 minutes mark. V5’s defensive line was at great risk. TES’ match MVP, mid-laner Zhuo “knight” Ding, led the advance deep to the enemy’s base. The match ended with TES’ triumph over V5.
TES then carried its second match dominance to the third and fourth rounds of the game. Taking knight’s place as the team’s key in the offense was star jungler Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang. The 21-year-old recorded an outstanding and deathless performance through Viego and Volibear, pressuring V5 with his 11/0/17 scoreline.
The first 15 minutes of the third game were intense, with V5 holding a 3,000 gold lead. Toward the end, however, TES stole the lead. The gold difference jumped from 2,000 to 10,000 in favor of TES.
Knight and co. closed the fourth game with two consecutive 25-minute victories over V5 and took home a rematch ticket on their hand against RNG in the finals.
Post-match, seeds to finals
The wonder team TES proved to the League of Legends esports community that the 2021 Demacia Cup winner still deserved to be a fan favorite. For V5, however, it was a huge blow to the team’s confidence. They had a stellar run back in the regular Split, leading the standings in the first place.
For TES, the strong win over V5 was deserved. They won a total of 20 games in addition to the playoffs series’ best-of-five. The game against V5 was resume-worthy, to say the least. Being defeated within 25 minutes was an embarrassment.
Seeded to the finals, TES’ chance to once again prove themselves and take on RNG is closing near. However, one question remains, that is whether or not TES will be able to retain their consistency and dominant play and use it to seize victory over RNG.
