It seemed that TheShy’s absence from the opening match would be a significant advantage for Suning in their confrontation with Invictus Gaming. However, the reigning World Runner-up still maintained their “early season just for fun” vibe, showcasing a disjointed performance and allowing IG to come back for a 2-1 victory.
Looking at the overall dynamics of all three games, SN’s laning phase continued to be a persistent issue. Bin faced off against rookie Neny, who was making his LPL debut, yet the star of SN failed to gain any advantage. In fact, in game three, Bin being solo-killed by Neny early in the game was a major factor that led to SN being completely snowballed.
The victory in game one primarily came from excellent shot-calling and team fighting – traits that have become the essence of Suning. However, in games two and three, when the disadvantages from the laning phase had become too significant, their combat capabilities could not compensate for the resource and item deficits, leading to SN being easily overwhelmed by their opponents.
In this match, all five members of SN generally underperformed. Angel was completely outclassed by Rookie and made several mistakes, while Bin was even worse off, being pressured by a rookie like Neny. Meanwhile, both SofM and ON made numerous positional errors and often died alone. The standout performer for SN was probably Huanfeng, but he alone could not change the tide of the match.
In the opening match of LPL Summer 2021, SofM also introduced the champion Viego – a character that had been banned throughout the Spring Split and MSI 2021. However, it seems that the potential of the Ruined King was not effectively utilized, and Viego in SofM’s hands faced a complete defeat against XUN’s Udyr.
Nonetheless, this is just the first match of the season, and fans are all too familiar with the image of a “struggling” SN in the early season, so the loss to IG shouldn’t be viewed as a disaster. However, the SN players, especially SofM, need to quickly regain their spirits, as LPL Summer 2021 is not going to be like last year’s tournament, promising to be much more fierce. They need to quickly find their rhythm to secure every point in pursuit of a spot at Worlds 2021.
