The match day on March 13 (Vietnam time) is perhaps one of the strangest days in LPL Spring 2022. Kicking off in the earliest match of the day, Weibo Gaming faced off against the weaker opponent Rare Atom – the team currently ranked 8th in the standings (before today’s matches). However, SofM and his teammates ended up losing. In fact, the scenario was no different from their defeat against Royal Never Give Up, if not more tragic.
SofM and his teammates played against RA but did not show the presence of a championship-contending team. Cube outplayed the 100% “Top God” TheShy in both games. Leyan left LPL fans unsure who the “master” and who the “student” was. Angel could only be summarized in two words: “harmless,” even while wielding his signature champion Orianna. Huanfeng tried his best, but even “Master Huan” lost his identity. ON was unremarkable in both games. Ultimately, WBG was swept by RA in the penultimate week of the group stage.
It was thought that with WBG’s defeat, the top teams like Top Esports or the previously mentioned Royal Never Give Up (competing on the same day) would seize the opportunity to rise. But the reality was far from what everyone imagined. TES and RNG, having secured their playoff spots, seemed to think that their standings were “locked in,” and surprisingly, they also suffered defeats. In fact, while WBG only lost to a team ranked 8th, TES, who had just decisively defeated WBG, lost to the 14th place team – Invictus Gaming. The “Royal Legion” fared even worse, being overcome by the team sitting second to last in the standings – Team WE.
Witnessing the unexpected defeats of the trio of LPL “giants” in the same afternoon, LPL fans were left in shock. Alongside the critical comments regarding the performances of these “big names” who had already secured playoff spots, many took to jokingly suggest that the players from RNG and TES might also be starting to “learn” from the “rich man” SofM, wanting to “decide the fate of LPL single-handedly.”
But anyway, the results are clear. Some believe that the large teams who have secured playoff spots will use the remaining matches to test their rosters and experiment with new meta strategies. With the group stage ending at the end of March and playoffs starting soon after, there isn’t much time left for teams to experiment during scrims. Moreover, the final matches of the group stage that are “meaningless” won’t significantly impact the top standings. Thus, this opinion is not without merit.
With just over a week left, the LPL Spring 2022 group stage will soon come to a close. Fans can expect to witness even more surprising results. However, as they enter the playoffs, teams will definitely need to be 100% serious. After all, once in this stage, a small mistake can cause all their hard work from the start of the season to go to waste, and certainly, no team wants to face the prospect of leaving empty-handed, especially after a transfer season that invested so much at the end of the 2021 season and the start of the 2022 season.