In the LPL, a game is never over until a Nexus actually falls. An example of this was seen earlier today when EDward Gaming kicked off their fifth week of the 2021 LPL Spring Split with a win over Victory Five.
This win brings EDG’s total record to 6-0, which makes them the only League of Legends team in the LPL that’s still undefeated after RNG unexpectedly lost to Bilibili Gaming yesterday.
V5 started the series with a growing lead thanks to Weiwei’s successful ganks on Graves and teamfights around the drake. They tried to speed up the pace of the game by forcing fights in chokepoints, which gave them a Baron. But EDG’s scaling composition was also getting stronger over time.
Related: TT grab first win of 2021 LPL Spring Split over V5
South Korean players Scout and Viper played a crucial role in delaying V5 in fights even when they lost their teammates, which locked V5 out of EDG’s base. EDG then turned things around in their next fight near the Baron pit and put the final nail in the coffin with the buff when V5 missed their engage while defending their base. This gave EDG the time they needed to take down V5’s tanks and melt their Nexus.
Although V5 seemed to be in control for most of the game, EDG support Meiko said he and his teammates weren’t nervous at that time. “From the beginning, we got pushed and were at a disadvantage, but we weren’t worried. We tried to get good momentum and slow down to make this turnover happen,” he said in the post-match interview.
That loss was likely a difficult blow to the mindset of V5’s players. They tried to get creative in the second game by picking the first Nocturne seen in the jungle in the LPL this split, but they didn’t have as clean of a performance as before.
EDG took the edge over V5 in the early game and punished several of their mistakes. This enabled them to snowball their lead and finish the game within only 23 minutes in front of the defenseless V5 players.
Among all Udyr players in the LPL, a pick with high priority but with a 33.3-percent win rate according to gol.gg, EDG’s rookie Jiejie is the one who showed the most success after this series. He picked the champion in both games and adapted him to V5’s compositions.
He got behind in the early game by dying twice at the hands of V5’s Weiwei, but Jiejie aggressively invaded his jungle with the help of his teammates later and it paid off.
In the second game, Jiejie solely focused on clearing his jungle in the fastest way possible, which left no chance for Weiwei’s Nocturne to match his level and enabled his team to get an early lead.
But most of the spotlight was put on EDG’s mid laner Scout. He stepped back and stayed safe when EDG were behind in the first game while landing well-timed ultimates on Orianna in fights.
Then, he chose a more aggressive playstyle in the second game and offered easy kills to his team with successful ultimates on Azir, on top of getting a solo kill on V5 mid laner Mole by using his swift mechanics.
EDG’s next matchup will be crucial to establishing themselves as top playoff contenders. They’ll play Worlds runners-up Suning on Friday, Feb. 5 at 5am CT.
V5 (3-4), on the other side, will try to climb the standings when they face off against eStar Gaming on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 3am CT.
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