Group Stage - January 14th - March 31st, 2019 Single round robin All matches are Bo3 Playoffs Single elimination All matches are Bo5 Top 4 qualifies for Rival Rivals 2019 - LCK vs LMS vs LPL Winner qualifies for Mid Season Invitational 2019
Bilibili Gaming EDward Gaming FunPlus Pheonix Invictus Gaming JD Gaming LGD Gaming Oh My God Rogue Warriors Royal Never Give Up SinoDragon Club Snake Esports Suning (Formerly known as Suning Gaming) Team WE Topsports Gaming Vici Gaming Victory Five
Hot off their first World Championship victory with Invictus Gaming, LPL rolls back around in just over a week on the 14th of January. Catch up on the biggest news from the offseason for the LPL.
- First up, two new teams have been added to the LPL (Victory Five, and SinoDragon Club), it's now got SIXTEEN teams. - With the two new teams, LPL abandons their two groups format. The LPL will now be run on a standard single round robin. -The biggest news out of the rosters was TOP's emergence as a potential super team, as well as the dismantling of Rogue Warriors. Here are the rosters as they stand now:
IG was the best team in the world all year long last year. Them not winning the LPL spring split was a fluke because TheShy got injured right before playoffs and they had to play with a sub. Them not winning summer split was due to KaiSa temporarily being massively OP because LPL finals were played on a different patch than other regions finals and worlds.
At worlds, IG did what they did every other game of the year that was played with their full squad on a balanced patch, they absolutely crushed and showed their form as clearly the best team in the world.
I am HYPED to watch them again this year. IG fighting!!!
On January 04 2019 12:47 chipmonklord17 wrote: Suning must have paid Maple and SwordArt hella bank to kill their international careers forever. Maybe we see them at Rift Rivals
You reckon Maple and SwordArt like having an inting ADC and top for their entire careers haha. Suning is such a good team. Hacker is a beast and so is smlz. Don't underrate them.
On January 04 2019 12:47 chipmonklord17 wrote: Suning must have paid Maple and SwordArt hella bank to kill their international careers forever. Maybe we see them at Rift Rivals
You reckon Maple and SwordArt like having an inting ADC and top for their entire careers haha. Suning is such a good team. Hacker is a beast and so is smlz. Don't underrate them.
There's being a good team, then there's needing to overcome the stranglehold that iG/EDG/RNG have had on China for literal years, and that's not counting the fact that TOP also looking amazing in the Demacia cup. I have no doubt they'll be in playoffs, but they will most certainly not win, so no MSI. Like I said, MAYBE they crack the top 4 and make it to Rift Rivals, but that's the only time we'll see them.
Compare that to if they stayed in LMS, whatever team they went on would more than likely be the representatives of that region for every international event
On January 04 2019 12:47 chipmonklord17 wrote: Suning must have paid Maple and SwordArt hella bank to kill their international careers forever. Maybe we see them at Rift Rivals
You reckon Maple and SwordArt like having an inting ADC and top for their entire careers haha. Suning is such a good team. Hacker is a beast and so is smlz. Don't underrate them.
There's being a good team, then there's needing to overcome the stranglehold that iG/EDG/RNG have had on China for literal years, and that's not counting the fact that TOP also looking amazing in the Demacia cup. I have no doubt they'll be in playoffs, but they will most certainly not win, so no MSI. Like I said, MAYBE they crack the top 4 and make it to Rift Rivals, but that's the only time we'll see them.
Compare that to if they stayed in LMS, whatever team they went on would more than likely be the representatives of that region for every international event
I guess so but I think we can see new growth from the two of them in a much more competitive region. EDG and RNG have questions surrounding them so it's not like they're infallible.
On January 04 2019 12:47 chipmonklord17 wrote: Suning must have paid Maple and SwordArt hella bank to kill their international careers forever. Maybe we see them at Rift Rivals
You reckon Maple and SwordArt like having an inting ADC and top for their entire careers haha. Suning is such a good team. Hacker is a beast and so is smlz. Don't underrate them.
There's being a good team, then there's needing to overcome the stranglehold that iG/EDG/RNG have had on China for literal years, and that's not counting the fact that TOP also looking amazing in the Demacia cup. I have no doubt they'll be in playoffs, but they will most certainly not win, so no MSI. Like I said, MAYBE they crack the top 4 and make it to Rift Rivals, but that's the only time we'll see them.
Compare that to if they stayed in LMS, whatever team they went on would more than likely be the representatives of that region for every international event
I guess so but I think we can see new growth from the two of them in a much more competitive region. EDG and RNG have questions surrounding them so it's not like they're infallible.
I'll give EDG and RNG the benefit of the doubt seeing as since season 3 two if not all three of them and iG have been at worlds. Leaving for China isn't a good bet if you want an international career, or even a domestic title. Don't get me wrong, Karsa, Maple, and SwordArt will be remembered as the best TW core of all time, but I think this is largely where the legacy stops for Maple and SwordArt. So I hope the money was worth it. Even if they improve as players, the likelyhood that they ever come to an MSI in the near future is near zero, and the track record for not iG/EDG/RNG is pretty poor for worlds too
Leaving for China isn't a good bet if you want an international career, or even a domestic title
This was true in the past when CN was a fiesta, but I don't think it applies anymore. Look at Rookie, or Karsa, they're doing great in CN. Besides, the only reason they even made it to Worlds was in less competitive regions, FW crushed their region every season but still never achieved anything of note except like once If CN is still interested in buying these guys, all the more to them, I'd rather have a 1% chance of making top 4 in LPL every season than crushing SEA and then getting dumped on at Worlds. Especially if you've achieved everything domestically.
Leaving for China isn't a good bet if you want an international career, or even a domestic title
This was true in the past when CN was a fiesta, but I don't think it applies anymore. Look at Rookie, or Karsa, they're doing great in CN. Besides, the only reason they even made it to Worlds was in less competitive regions, FW crushed their region every season but still never achieved anything of note except like once If CN is still interested in buying these guys, all the more to them, I'd rather have a 1% chance of making top 4 in LPL every season than crushing SEA and then getting dumped on at Worlds. Especially if you've achieved everything domestically.
But Rookie and Karsa are the exception. That's also why I said I thought the legacy for Maple and SwordArt would end here when talking about Maple, SwordArt, and Karsa. Karsa upgraded an already legendary lineup and turned them into arguably the best team of the year, second at worst. Going to China statistically isn't good for an international career if you aren't going to EDG/RNG/iG, considering two of the three if not all three make worlds literally every year for the past 6 years.
I'm also not trying to say Maple/SwordArt don't deserve the bank they're getting, just that I hope that its enough to justify never going back to an international event. And as far as your second point is concerned, I agree to an extent. They could have also joined a different LMS team that was interested in importing two of jungler/adc/top and they probably would have still crushed domestically and had the chance to show up to international events still. One of those might not exist making that point moot, but all I'm saying is there could have been a way to upgrade the team around you and still reliably go to international events at the cost of China-bucks
I think EDG won't have the same level of success. They've been the top dog for so long in terms of money and that looks to be changing with all the big investment into the Chinese league. This Suning roster really is up to Maple and Swordart anyways. They've got a fantastic supporting cast. If they're good enough then they can make Worlds, heck maybe even win it which I don't think was possible in the LMS. No team was gonna bring in top talent from other regions as none had the financial power to do so.
Rookie didn't look too good this series, although he did make some great plays, I'd say he carried the last half of game 2 with his pick on knight. But this was textbook iG, run the enemy over with raw ability if you can't do it with just macro, TOP looked good but they need a bit more time. Team fights could've gone either way, difference in game 2 was that Loken wasn't on a scaling champion like Jackey.
On January 15 2019 01:56 DarkCore wrote: Rookie didn't look too good this series, although he did make some great plays, I'd say he carried the last half of game 2 with his pick on knight. But this was textbook iG, run the enemy over with raw ability if you can't do it with just macro, TOP looked good but they need a bit more time. Team fights could've gone either way, difference in game 2 was that Loken wasn't on a scaling champion like Jackey.
IMO Game 1 was comp oriented as well. The lack of waveclear really hurt TOP. In Game 2, it didn't help xX missed 80% of his Sej ults.
On January 15 2019 01:56 DarkCore wrote: Rookie didn't look too good this series, although he did make some great plays, I'd say he carried the last half of game 2 with his pick on knight. But this was textbook iG, run the enemy over with raw ability if you can't do it with just macro, TOP looked good but they need a bit more time. Team fights could've gone either way, difference in game 2 was that Loken wasn't on a scaling champion like Jackey.
I felt Rookie supported his team sometimes by sacrificing himself. For instance, in game one, delaying the Nashor by going 1v5 to allow his teammates to contest it. Great play by rookie on this one even though he got obliterated.
But the whole team was playing extremely well. Duke, Jackeylove, Ning. Baolan I had trouble seeing what he was doing. But on the other side the support wasn't shining either.
If we talk about it, it's usually on the General esports thread, because this site is so dead. JDG played the series incredibly poorly, looked like a classic example of over-preparation syndrome, valuing series preparation over your own strengths. JDG got through playoffs playing exactly one style, the one they showed in the final game, and any deviation resulted in losses.