After 2 victories against LNG and WE, JD Gaming – the champions of LPL Spring 2020, became a high-stakes test to assess the level of Suning Gaming, and the result was a failure in this test. The most unfortunate part was how SN let the victory slip away.
In the first game, SofM and his teammates dominated the reigning champions for most of the time, something no one could have anticipated. Specifically, Graves in SofM’s hands had a completely superior match against Kanavi – the current number one jungler in the LPL. He consistently outperformed the opposing jungler in jungle creeps and organized effective ganks in the mid and early game.
But ultimately, the continuous mistakes in movement and picking off by SN members caused the match to slip away from them. Twisted Fate in Angel’s hands gradually became ineffective towards the end of the game, while JDG had a significantly more effective team composition with Jarvan IV, Yuumi, and Renekton, leading to SN being overturned and losing game 1.
In game 2, there were even moments when SN pushed to JDG’s Nexus turret, but once again, the champions demonstrated an extremely resilient mindset, successfully defending against SN’s pushes.
As the match dragged on, Suning’s composition, lacking substantial tankiness, became increasingly disadvantaged, and ultimately they were again overturned when JDG broke through their formation in the last two teamfights, pushing straight to the Nexus and claiming the overall victory.
The match result was not surprising, but the duel between the two top-tier junglers in the LPL thrilled fans. Recently, it has been quite coincidental that Chinese media has reported extensively on SofM’s influence, and he has responded to the praise from Chinese fans with a very impressive performance, even though it wasn’t enough to help SN secure a third consecutive victory.
The 2-0 scoreline does not accurately reflect the match’s dynamics, as this was clearly a very hard-fought victory for JD Gaming. However, it also shows that SN is still lacking too many elements to become a major force.
SofM cannot always maintain his current high level of performance, but the issue is that when he plays well, it’s his teammates who are unstable. Overall, SN’s lineup still lacks the necessary stability to maintain a positive result, but generally, their performance up to this point has shown significant progress compared to the spring season, and SN in LPL Summer 2020 will truly be a name to watch.