Week 6 of the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) was headlined by Top Esports going up against the 2021 World Champions, Edward Gaming.
TES is having a fantastic 2022 LPL Summer Split, and was 8-1 in the standings prior to this match. They took down Weibo Gaming 2-1 two weeks ago, and MSI 2022 champions Royal Never Give Up the week after. This week, they rose to the challenge yet again, defeating Edward Gaming 2-1.
EDG still have a positive win-loss ratio, but took an unexpected loss to Oh My God and Victory Five in Week 5, and were looking to improve their mid-table standings. Mid laner Lee “Scout” Ye-chan led the way in game one with Taliyah, single-handedly influencing the outcome of team fights around objectives using Weaver’s Wall.
Top Esports bounced back in game two, picking Taliyah for Zhuo “knight” Ding. It was Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang’s Trundle however, who made the most impact in the early game, ganking all lanes to give TES a head start.
Tied 1-1, it all boiled down to a single game-changing team fight in game three.
- Watch TheShy outplay his old teammate 1v2 in intense 36-second exchange
- The resurgence of Amumu support and when you should be picking him
Tian shows up big for Top Esports with a Baron steal that secured match victory
Game three saw Top Esports trailing in gold to Edward Gaming for the majority of the game. It was only at the 28-minute mark did TES manage to close the gap to about 1,000 gold. They had four kills to EDG’s five, and three dragons to EDG’s two.
Spotting Huang “Wayward” Ren-Xing’s Gangplank in bot lane, who did not have Teleport up, Edward Gaming made their move to start Baron.
They had also placed a ward over the pit for vision, where they could see Tian waiting in the wings. As Li “Flandre” Xuan-Jun’s Gnar and Tian “Meiko” Ye’s Nautilus zoned out the rest of the TES squad on the side, the remaining three focused on downing Baron.
Even though they had full vision of Tian, Zhao “Jiejie” Li-Jie mistimed Smite, and cast it when Baron was at 1,300 HP. In this exact moment, Tian’s Wukong used Warrior Trickster to get over the pit, and Smited the remaining 200HP left on the Baron, stealing it right under EDG’s noses.
By then, the damage was done. Flandre’s Gnar was left with one-quarter HP, and Wayward had walked all the way from bot to rejoin his team. Meiko tried to replace Flandre in the frontline, but a well-timed Unbreakable wall by Ling “Mark” Xu’s Braum negated Park “Viper” Do-hyeon’s damage on Jinx as Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo melted EDG’s initiators.
Taking down four, Top Esports with Baron buff marched down mid lane to claim the series win on the back of a single well-played team fight. For his heroics, 2019 World Champion Tian was awarded the MVP in games two and three.
Edward Gaming are now 6-4, 6th in the standings out of 17 teams. They will face LGD Gaming on July 21, and Royal Never Give Up on July 23. Top Esports are in second place with a 9-1 record. They play Rare Atom on July 20.
Catch the LPL matches live daily on the official LPL Twitch and YouTube channels.
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