Suning’s journey to the 2021 World Championship has been incredibly challenging right from the start, as they faced formidable opponents in the first week of the LPL Summer 2021. After Invictus Gaming in their first match, Suning encountered Team WE in the second match – a team that was even rated higher than the 2018 world champions at this time.
And the unexpected did not happen, as WE continued to maintain their impressive performance from the spring season, while SN continued to show instability in the performance of their players.
Huanfeng continues to be the only name that gives SN fans some comfort at this point, as his ability to carry the team (along with mistakes from WE) helped the Lions equalize 1-1 after the second match. However, in the first week of LPL Summer 2021, all 4 other names from SN displayed severe instability, particularly Bin and SofM.
Once regarded as the number one top lane player in LPL in 2020, Bin has now continuously lost lane in 6 matches played, no longer being a reliable support for SN’s top side. This has led to a deadlock in SofM’s gameplay, as the top lane cover strategy proved ineffective, and SofM has yet to find any effective alternative strategy, continually being countered.
Angel, while not seriously declining, also cannot create too many breakthroughs in the mid lane, while ON has no way to address the team’s overall weaknesses as SN’s ability to control the early and mid-game remains abysmal.
The match against Team WE also marked SofM’s milestone of 1000 kills at LPL. However, he did not get to enjoy this milestone fully as SN continued to lose. They ended the first week of LPL Summer 2021 with 2 defeats, and in their next match, Suning will face Ultra Prime – a team not highly rated. This could be a great opportunity for SN to end their losing streak and regain their spirit after a terrible start to the season.