With a 3-0 victory in the lower bracket finals against Team WE, Edward Gaming has secured their spot in the grand finals of LPL Summer 2021, and their opponent is FunPlus Phoenix – a team currently demonstrating absolute destructive power and the top candidate for the championship.
Before the lower bracket finals between EDG and WE took place, Ning – the former player of Invictus Gaming, commented that the result of this match wouldn’t significantly affect the LPL landscape, because “whichever team reaches the grand finals will be crushed 3-0 by FPX anyway.”
And as the final match of the season approaches, the former world champion of 2018 still stands by his opinion that FPX currently possesses an overwhelmingly superior strength compared to the rest of the tournament.
“EDG used a three-pronged attack strategy in their match against WE, meaning they tried to farm all three lanes thanks to their stronger mechanics. This strategy was immensely successful because WE had a terrible draft/pick. But against FPX, EDG’s strength-based playstyle is completely useless. Even if EDG annihilates WE, they are still too weak compared to FPX.”
Ning also believes that FPX has reached a level of perfection by balancing both overall strategy and individual player skill. The bot lane of this team seems a bit “behind”, but has been compensated for by the top side of the map with the trio Nuguri – Tian – Doinb having too many winning conditions.
Agreeing with Ning, most experts and fans of League of Legends in China are leaning towards a scenario of victory for Doinb and his teammates. During the event where the LPL organizers mistakenly awarded the MVP title of the group stage to Doinb instead of the finals, many fans jokingly said that Riot China should not bother to retrieve the mistakenly awarded prize, because they would have to give it back to Doinb anyway.
Theoretically, the bot lane of EDG is currently the only position where they are rated higher than their opponent. However, the current meta does not allow AD carries too many opportunities to carry the team, while Flandre and Scout are expected to have a tough day facing Nuguri and Doinb.
Of course, it is still too early to assert anything, but the fact that FPX is showing complete superiority over all other opponents in the LPL is a proven reality. Nevertheless, EDG will have an additional psychological advantage as they have secured a ticket to the 2021 World Championship, and thus their pressure will be significantly reduced in the “do-or-die” clash with the Phoenix team.