As the fourth week of the LPL Summer 2022 is coming to a close, the developments on the leaderboard have become increasingly unpredictable. With the top teams only separated by 1-2 points, each direct confrontation is of utmost importance. WBG’s loss to TES yesterday is a prime example, as it pushed SofM and his teammates out of the race for the top 4 teams.
Right after the match ended, star player TheShy faced a lot of criticism due to several poor performances in the decisive game. In fact, during the post-match interview, Knight from Top Esports also shared that they recognized that exploiting TheShy’s position would maximize their chances of defeating WBG.
Q: How do you feel about today’s match? It’s already a new day.
TES Knight: I feel quite wonderful because I ended a long day with a victory.
Q: Did any team members feel uncomfortable or under pressure?
TES Knight: Wayward said he was quite worried about facing TheShy. We also realized that to win against WBG, the best way was to exploit TheShy’s position, so the whole team helped him as much as possible.
Indeed, looking back at the loss against TES, we can see that TheShy was heavily focused on, especially in game 3. With his use of Ornn, TheShy was the key to victory; the higher his level and the more items he forged for his teammates, the greater WBG’s chances of winning. However, TheShy made several crucial mistakes in the mid-game, leading to him being taken down too early and causing WBG to fall behind completely.
As a result, as we have seen, WBG had no way to stop TES’s rapid power spike, leading to a regrettable defeat. With this loss, WBG now stands at 4 wins – 3 losses, holding 7th place on the leaderboard. Combined with direct competitors like LNG, RNG, and EDG all securing wins this week, WBG’s chances of making it into the top 4 are becoming increasingly slim.