In the spotlight match of the first week of LPL Spring 2022, SofM and TheShy’s Weibo Gaming fell to Bilibili Gaming with a score of 1-2. It was an unfortunate loss, but WBG can only blame themselves for making too many mistakes. Additionally, credit must be given to BLG for their outstanding performance. Notably, young AD carry Doggo, in his debut at an official LPL tournament, carried the pressure of pushing Uzi to the bench and had a great game.
Many players and experts paid attention to the “media clash of LPL” between WBG and BLG. Among them, Doinb – the former FunPlus Phoenix star and someone quite close to SofM, whose former teammate Crisp is on BLG, was of course involved. After the match, the mid-laner of LNG Esports pointed out the lingering weaknesses of WBG since their time as Suning. At the same time, he admitted that SofM is indeed a problem for WBG.
“The problem with WBG has been mentioned many times: they are very easy to get caught in the mid and late game due to a lack of vision. SofM prioritizes controlling the bush areas, while the whole team also needs vision outside. It’s not meant to be offensive, but this is the truth and has been said many times. The issue is not about wanting to do it or not, but it’s for the whole team. WBG is probably the team that gets caught out the most among the 17 teams in the jungle. For instance, in the match against WE, SofM and ON were caught about 10 times, continuously going down. Especially, WBG’s decision-making ability at critical moments is not really good. Right now, SwordArt is better than ON, but SwordArt doesn’t lane as strongly as ON. We can only hope that SwordArt improves and returns to WBG’s main lineup, otherwise, we have to wait for new updates. Otherwise, WBG’s weaknesses will remain.” – Doinb stated on his stream.
Indeed, in WBG’s two matches in LPL Spring 2022 so far, one can see a team that has a strong early game, or at least is balanced with the opponent if TheShy or Huanfeng are camped too much. However, as they move into crucial phases, they often only play smoothly and coordinate well when they have a significant advantage from the laning phase. Games 2 and 3 in the match against BLG are the clearest evidence that WBG cannot truly resolve their issues if the opponent maintains a balanced or slightly advantageous situation after the early game.
But after all, LPL Spring has only just gone through the first week of competition, and teams still have plenty of opportunities to turn things around. WBG itself has certainly recognized its issues, and SofM along with his teammates will need to quickly find ways to address them if they do not want to repeat their mistakes from the previous 2021 season.