Before the official start of the World Championship (Worlds) 2022, most fans of League of Legends (LoL) worldwide believed that all four representatives from the LPL region this year were very strong. Not just JD Gaming (JDG), but names like TOP Esports (TES), EDward Gaming (EDG) and Royal Never Give Up (RNG) all had chances to claim the championship.
However, by the time the semifinals arrived, only JDG remained as the representative of the LPL region while LCK still had 3 out of 4 representatives. Despite sending four of the strongest representatives in history, LPL could not dominate LCK at the Worlds 2022. Recently, the media in this region pointed out the three most significant issues that led LPL teams to poor results.
Adaptability to the New Patch
For each international tournament, Riot always releases a new patch specifically for that event, with many differences from the patches used in domestic leagues. The patch applied at this year’s Worlds is completely different from Summer 2022. This factor affected the preparation of several teams, most notably RNG.
The MSI 2022 champion has never been known as a team that adapts well to the continuous changes of LoL patches. Not only in 2022 but also in the previous 2021 season, RNG unexpectedly declined after returning from MSI 2021. At that year’s Worlds, they could only reach the semifinals after losing to Gen.G. This season, RNG faced the “unlucky” challenge of meeting the extremely strong T1 with a wide champion pool in the quarterfinals. The result of a 0-3 loss, with the team’s helplessness against T1’s sudden draft strategies, is the clearest example of this issue.
Maintaining and Cultivating Stability
It cannot be denied that RNG and both TES and EDG had some very good matches, but the problem for these teams is their inability to maintain and cultivate stability. In the match against GAM Esports (GAM), TES started too slowly and encountered numerous difficulties. If LPL’s representatives had played as they did in the first round, GAM might not have been able to pull off the miracle.
RNG and EDG also found themselves in a similar situation. EDG could only blame themselves after leading 2-0 but still allowed DRX to make a comeback. Especially in the deciding game, the 2021 Worlds champion – Scout – was taken down by young DRX player Zeka four times in a row in a one-on-one situation. This is evidence of instability, from both the mentality to the performance of the players.
Resilience
Up to now, the 2022 Worlds tournament has witnessed many spectacular comebacks. Notable matches include GAM – TES, DRX – EDG, and JDG – DK. Remarkably, except for the match between JDG and DK in the Group Stage, LPL representatives have been the “victims”. Most notably, EDG was defeated by DRX in the final quarterfinal match of Worlds 2022 after leading.
LPL representatives failed to maintain the necessary resilience to stay focused throughout the matches compared to their opponents. At this point, JDG is showing they are better than RNG, EDG, and TES. However, JDG must not underestimate their upcoming opponent, T1 – a team that will not easily give opportunities to opponents once they take the lead.
Moreover, JDG also has many issues, particularly in the bottom lane duo. JDG needs to address this weakness soon, especially when T1 possesses a very robust bottom lane duo at Worlds 2022 so far.