On the afternoon of January 10 (Vietnam time), the LPL Spring 2022 tournament officially kicked off again. All eyes were on the clash between Royal Never Give Up and FunPlus Phoenix. One side is the defending champion of LPL Spring 2021, while the other is the team that, just a year ago, with the old line-up, was the runner-up of this tournament. In the recent off-season transfer window, both teams made changes to their rosters, especially FPX, which now only has Lwx remaining from the team that won the 2019 World Championship.
It was expected that the team “representing Chinese LoL” with the motto “only using domestic players” would achieve a devastating victory over the restructured FPX, which consisted entirely of young players or those without prior LPL experience. However, surprises occurred right from game 1 when FPX took the lead with a standout performance from Lwx. In game 2, RNG managed to shut down FPX’s bot lane duo and leveled the score to 1-1. Moving to game 3, individual mistakes combined with solid performances from Beichuan, Xiaolaohu, Lwx, and Gori led FPX to a glorious victory.
There is no denying that FPX won convincingly, but RNG also revealed some shortcomings. Firstly, the players, just like in the early stages of Summer 2021, were really slow to adapt compared to FPX. Even when they nearly overwhelmed Gori in mid and frequently moved to gank the bot, RNG still could not completely dominate FPX. The skirmish at bot lane is an example; although Gori was “under pressure” from the start, he still made a significant contribution before going down, resulting in FPX securing four kills at once. And for those who didn’t follow the match, the only player who didn’t die in that skirmish was Bin.
Moreover, Bin became the second issue for RNG in this match. While Xiaolaohu performed well, Bin appeared rather lackluster. In game 1, it could be explained by RNG focusing on the bot lane. Game 2 saw RNG completely dominate, but in game 3, while Xiaolaohu was frequently present at key points, Bin just farmed and farmed. Holding the crucial champion for team fights, Gwen, Bin’s contributions were minimal compared to FPX’s Jayce. Not to mention, during the decisive skirmish near Baron, Bin was so flustered that he activated… the Zhonya’s Hourglass while his teammates were being obliterated outside.
After the match, Bin also became the target of criticism from a segment of LPL fans. Some opinions even suggested that RNG made a “bad deal” when recruiting Bin to replace Xiaohu in the top lane.
Nevertheless, this was still Bin’s first match in an official LPL tournament in his new uniform. Losing a first match in the group stage is not a huge setback for RNG. Their issues, along with Bin’s, have been revealed. RNG and Bin must seize the opportunity to rectify mistakes while they still can, to avoid a bleak future.