The biggest regional tournament of the competitive League of Legends season is gaining momentum. Slowly but surely, LPL Spring 2023 is approaching its climax, but before that we have a lot of quality, or not so much League of Legends to look forward to.
One of the matches on the way to the climax of what's happening in the biggest regional tournament will be a clash between Weibo Gaming and Royal Never Give Up. The match is definitely not without interest, and here's why: both teams qualify for the tournament playoffs and are in the top 10 of the LPL Spring.
Weibo Gaming are in 5th place in the regular season, which guarantees them passage to the second round of the playoffs for now, but if they win, WG retain the opportunity to break into the top 4. The team has 7 wins in 11 games.
Royal Never Give Up are playoff contenders, but their situation is much more dangerous. The team is on the borderline of 10th place with a 5-7 statistic and a win in this clash could move them slightly away from failure.
Let's see who will be stronger in this matchup and be able to improve their position in the regional league considerably.
Form Weibo Gaming
Let's start the match review with an analysis of Weibo Gaming's form. In this match, they will have to play as favourites.
Bookmakers are confident that Weibo Gaming will win. The odds on Shy-ya's team success are in the region of 1.3.
The number is huge, but in relation to Royal Never Give Up, it looks impressive. And Weibo Gaming themselves this season are upbeat and enthusiastic as you can see from their recent performance and team interactions.
Weibo Gaming roster
WG have assembled a formidable roster for the 2023 season that is capable of clawing their way to the top spots at the end of the tournament. We are now watching their journey to becoming a top team in live action.
Weibo Gaming players
- TheShy
- Karsa
- xiaohu
- Light
- Crisp
This is what happens when you put experienced performers, former world champions and top performers all in one place. TheShy and Crisp handle the role of locomotive on the game and look pretty good.
Weibo Gaming's performance
WG approach the game on the 5th line. The team has 7 wins in 10 games, and the stats on the cards are 15-8.
In the course of the tournament the team managed to beat Anyone`s Legend, FPX, Invictus Gaming, PSG.LGD, TOP Esports and Rare Atom. Lost to one of the leaders LPL Spring 2023 LNG (0-2), TT Gaming and Bilibili Gaming.
Among the wins we note the win against Invictus Gaming and TOP Esports, who lost to future rivals WG and EDward. However, quite unexpected was the loss to TT Gaming, and Bilibili could have beaten, but still 1-2 not in favor of Shy and company.
Before the match against Royal Never Give Up played against the leaders of the EDG run. The top LPL Spring 2023 team won the series 2-1.
Champions Weibo Gaming
Weibo Gaming are not known for diversity in the top line. TheShy plays KSante (10 games, 8 wins), Gnar (6 matches, 50% wins). Sion (2 matches, 100% wins) and Renekton (2 matches, 50% wins) appear rarely.
In the forest the ubiquitous Maokai is ignored (he's only appeared once, and then lost). But a fair amount of attention is given to Vi (6 games, 100% wins), Elise (6 games, 60% wins), Sejuani (4 games, 75% wins).
The centre line is occupied by Syndra (7 games, 85% wins), Ryze (4 games, 0% wins), Talliyah (3 games, 66% wins).
From shooters like Lucian (5 matches, 80% wins), Varus (4 games, 75% wins), Zeri, Sivir and Caytlin have appeared 3 times each and only Sivir hasn't won a single game.
Sappers: Nami (7 games, 85% wins), Ashe (4 games, 50% wins), Yummi (3 games, 33% wins).
Royal Never Give Up uniforms
Royal Never Give Up will be on the other side of the barricades. The team will play in the status of the outsider.
Bookmakers do not particularly believe in the success of the "kings". The odds of Royal Never Give Up winning are estimated at around 3.
A near three-point lead is fully justified. One look at the position in the standings and it is clear that RNG will be behind.
Royal Never Give Up's line-up
Digging deeper, we can see that Royal Never Give Up is doing worse on an individual and team level. Weibo have managed to create a roster that is close to a championship roster, but Royal Never Give Up have lost their status as the top team in the region.
Royal Never Give Up players
- Breathe
- Wei
- Angel
- GALA
- Ming
- Tangyuan
- Bunny
Don't be deceived by the fact that the squad consists of 7 players. Tangyuan the leader and Bunny the assailant, the backbone of the team - Breathe, Wei, Angel, GALA and Ming.
The players of RNG are not unknown and are not common. Wei, Gala and Ming, for example, won last year's Mid-Season Invitational 2023 and later took the top eight at Worlds 2023 with Breath.
Changing a single player shouldn't have much of an impact, but in the case of RNG, it seems to have. The team is finding it difficult to perform at LPL Spring 2023, as evidenced by their performance.
Royal Never Give Up performance
RNG started the season with a solid win over OMG. The first series ended with a 2-0 win for the Kings.
Next up was a meeting against IG. The spring run leaders closed the series 2-0 without giving RNG a chance.
The third series against LNG again brought RNG a negative expiry. Renewed LNG closed out the match 2-0.
RNG also lost to EDward Gaming and JD Gaming. Both series ended against the Kings by a score of 0-2.
Royal Never Give Up managed to get back on track a bit in their match against Team WE. There the Kings managed to finish the series with a score of 2-1.
Then RNG lost to TOP Esports and Bilibili Gaming. Back to basics, so to speak.
Royal Never Give Up champions.
Top picks are KSante (4 matches, 25% wins), Renekton (3 matches, 66% wins), Jayce (2 games, 0% wins).
From Foresters: Maokai (3 games, 33% wins), Sejuani (3 games, 0% wins), Graves (2 games, 50% wins), Poppy (2 games, 0 wins) and Wukong (2 games, 50% win rate).
In the midrange a classic situation: Azir (2 games, 50% wins), Akali (1 game, 0 wins), Ryze (1 game, 100% wins).
On the shooters too, it's pretty usual, except for ignoring Lucian-a. The most selectable champion is Zeri (4 games, 75% wins). There were Caitlyn (3 games, 33% wins), Ziggs (2 games, 0% wins) and Varus (2 games, 0% wins).
Heimerdinger (2 games, 50% wins), Yuumi (2 games, 50% wins).
History of personal confrontations
Previously, the teams have not played each other in the renewed rosters. This match will be the first experience of head-to-head encounters in the 2023 season.
Match outcome
In this encounter, I expect a class act from Weibo. They're ahead of Royal Never Give Up by all standards and should not concede the match.
Add to that the importance factor of the match and we get an easy win for Weibo. At least it seems so before the match, and it will be so as the game progresses. 2-0 is pretty risky, but why not.
Bottom line: 2-0 in favour of Weibo Gaming.
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