The LPL 2022 Spring Playoffs will be held on April 23 at 11:30 am CET. Royal Never Give Up is meeting Top Esports for the second time in the playoffs and will look to close out the grand finals the same way they did before, with a victory. Top Esports has played 5 best-of-5 series so far in the tournament, they won 4 and lost once against Royal Never Give Up in the winners’ bracket semifinals. Royal Never Give Up had a cleaner run and hasn’t dropped a single series so far, and even if they didn’t have to face LPL’s 1st seed, they have shown a really strong performance.
Royal Never Give Up is coming close to repeating a Spring Split victory just like they did in 2021 when they took down 3-1 former World Champions, FunPlus Phoenix. After having an unsuccessful run during Worlds 2021, Royal Never Give Up deemed necessary a few roster changes. Xiaohu was done with the top lane and returned to the mid lane where he was considered one of the best in the past years. They also added former Suning top laner and finalist, Bin, which gave them a huge boost in the top lane considering he’s been one of the best laners in the entire region.
RNG’s run this playoffs so far hasn’t been that impressive if we compare it to Top Esports, but we have to show credit where it’s due. Xiaohu is on his way to becoming undisputedly the best mid laner in the LPL, he already beat Knight last week, but if he manages to take him down convincingly once again, there will be no doubt about it. The way that Royal Never Give Up has been winning most of their games is through strong team fighting and pristine late-game macro. They definitely are strong laners, but I wouldn’t consider that to be their strongest point.
Top Esports, on the other hand, have such a strong early game presence thanks to Tian and Knight, arguably the strongest jungle/mid duo in the playoffs. Their ADC, Jackeylove, didn’t have the best start of the split but as the weeks passed, he regained the throne of the bot lane king in China. Although there is a concern for Top Esports, Wayward is considered their weakest laner. He is definitely a good top laner, but if we compare him to his counterpart Bin and how the matchup went last time, it’s clear that RNG can take advantage of the difference in the top lane.
This grand final will be very exciting to watch because of the way that the playoffs have panned out. Whichever team wins will be crowned as the best LPL team and will be China’s representative at the 2022 MSI. But not only that, there is a huge duel in the mid and bot lane, so whoever wins will come out on top as the best laner in the entire region.
