For the second-straight split, Invictus Gaming are on top of the LPL. They survived the crazy meta shifts of the Summer Split to accrue a 14-1 record with two matches left to play. That means they’re locked into the first seed for playoffs no matter what happens throughout the rest of this week.
With this flexibility, the team could try innovative new strategies or simply give their starters a break. It looks it will choose the latter. As first reported by Fomos, the team announced on its Weibo page that it plans to sub in Wang Sicong at the ADC spot in its Aug. 19 match against Vici Gaming. Wang is the only son of Wang Jianlian, the chairman of the Dalian Wangda Group, the biggest real estate developer in China and the owner of Invictus Gaming. The younger Wang bought IG in 2011.
The end of the competitive season usually gives rise to role swaps and troll picks as teams take it easy. But this is a pretty unprecedented move. Team owners like Andy “Reginald” Dinh of TSM used to play on stage with their teams, but an owner hasn’t pulled that off in years.
Wang still has to be accepted by league management as a valid sub. If his application is approved, he will replace star rookie Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo. The team hasn’t revealed whether Wang will play the whole match or just one game.
If he does get in the game, expect a tough fight from Vici. Even though they’re the worst team in the league, going against an amateur player may be just what they needed to get a win. The match will kick off on Sunday at 1am CT.
