With a recent 0-2 loss to Rare Atom, Weibo Gaming finished Week 8 of the LPL Spring 2022 without securing a single match win. Previously, they also suffered a defeat with the same score against Top Esports.
Expanding to the previous week, WBG has lost 3 matches with the same 0-2 score. The only victory that SofM and his teammates managed during this period was a hard-fought win against LGD Gaming, who are at the bottom of the standings.
From being at the top of the standings, WBG has now dropped to third place and risks falling out of the top 4 if they continue to lose in their last two matches of the group stage. Although they have secured a playoff spot, being outside the top 4 will put WBG at a disadvantage as they will have to exert themselves to compete in an additional BO5 series.
In light of this situation, analysts have been dissecting to find the issues that WBG is facing. Besides the decline in performance from stars like SofM and TheShy, the sudden meta shift is also considered a major reason for this disappointing streak.
WBG began to decline after being stopped by Royal Never Give Up, ending their 8-match winning streak in Week 7. This was also the first week that LPL Spring 2022 adopted patch 12.4. Previously, the tournament had consistently used patches 12.1 and 12.2 for six weeks.
With a series of changes in these two major updates, WBG has nearly lost their strengths from previous rounds. SofM once stated that the team’s success was due to each member having a stable champion pool in the meta, but clearly, when the tournament changed versions, WBG was unable to adapt in time.
Firstly, in the Top Lane. TheShy, when faced with opponents banning Gwen in all matches, is no longer a significant threat. Furthermore, the champion bans in patch 12.4 have prevented him from utilizing his strengths with tank champions like Sion and Malphite. Meanwhile, TheShy has hardly used Tryndamere, a champion well-suited for split-pushing and has been picked by 15 players in the LPL this season. Coupled with a slight drop in form, the Top God has not maintained his high performance with Jayce, Gnar, or Graves in recent times.
In the Mid Lane, Angel is also becoming less threatening as the farming-focused playstyle with Viktor and Corki gradually fades away. Most notably, WBG’s Mid Lane has yet to effectively utilize Ahri, a proactive champion that is currently very popular in the meta.
SofM is not significantly affected by champion choices, but his “safe” playstyle is becoming predictable to opponents. With the absence of aggressive early game movements, SofM is inadvertently putting the solo lanes at a disadvantage, thus losing the ability to secure major objectives. And in a competitive tournament like the LPL, this playstyle is no longer as “safe” as SofM once claimed at the beginning of the season.
These are issues that many can observe; additionally, WBG needs to quickly rectify internal problems. In the short term, they must achieve good results in their last two group stage matches against Invictus Gaming and JD Gaming to maintain a position in the top 4, thereby creating a solid foundation for the intense BO5 matches in the upcoming playoffs. Because once they fall out of the top 4, WBG may have to “climb the tower”. With their slow adaptation to the meta compared to other teams, not many fans believe that WBG can replicate the “mountain climbing” feats of previous seasons.