Royal Never Give Up dealt Bilibili Gaming their first loss of the 2022 LPL Spring Split today, withstanding the surprise Rek’Sai jungle pick from BLG’s Weiwei.
Week three of the 2022 LPL Spring Split was capped off by one of the most highly-anticipated matchups of the week featuring a battle between the undefeated BLG and the 2021 MSI champions in RNG.
Game one began in favor of BLG after their bottom lane found a kill onto RNG support Ming before RNG answered back a few minutes later by getting a kill of their own in the top lane.
From this point on, the game was left in a stalemate while both teams battled for mid priority and vision control. The match began to enter the mid to late game, where control would be determined by one singular teamfight.
Things continued to draw even until the 26-minute mark, where BLG support Crisp found a nice engage onto RNG AD carry GALA. With RNG’s ADC down, BLG found the first big advantage of the game when they took the Baron at 28 minutes. This allowed BLG to push their advantage in the mid lane and grab mid priority and vision.
But this was the last time BLG had any sort of advantage. A few moments later, they get aced trying to contest RNG’s dragon take.
RNG then turned this shift in power into a late-game snowball and a 4,000 gold lead as they went toward the Baron at 33 minutes. With no other choice, BLG attempted to stop the RNG Baron play but were immediately engaged. From here, RNG grabbed the Baron, which then ultimately gave them the first game of the series.
Down 0-1, BLG pulled out a pocket Rek’Sai pick in the final drafting phase of game two, shocking both viewers and RNG. As game two began, Rek’Sai naturally fell behind in CS to RNG’s Viego pick. But Weiwei used Rek’Sai’s mobility to apply pressure across the map.
This led to every single BLG lane winning the early game, which was then used to win a teamfight in RNG’s blue side jungle, where three RNG members were eliminated. BLG then quickly turned toward a Baron grab. From this point, BLG grabbed their fourth dragon before running down to the bottom lane and ending the game after killing three RNG members.
The final game of the series ended before it began after BLG allowed RNG to grab Jinx, Corki, and Xin Zhao, who are three of the most picked and banned champions this split, according to Oracle’s Elixir, only behind Caitlyn, who was already banned in that game. Just through the draft alone, RNG had the ability to control the early-game pressure through Xin Zhao and the mid to late game through Corki and Jinx.
In the game, BLG grabbed objective control by taking the first two dragons, but RNG were tighter in the early-game skirmishes off the back of RNG jungler Wei’s Xin Zhao. This early-game lead then resulted in RNG being able to hold map control and they took an uncontested Baron at 25 minutes.
RNG gained more control of the map and then secured a pick onto Weiwei, which they turned into a second Baron just minutes after, once again uncontested. With the second Baron, RNG closed out the game and series after BLG attempted one more engage in the bottom lane before getting burst down from the damage of Corki and Jinx.
One of the biggest issues for Bilibili was allowing RNG to get both Jinx and Corki in both of their game losses. And with no early-game-centric champions to put a stop to their power spikes, both games were doomed once they got to the mid to late game.
Nonetheless, today was a great showing from RNG, who improve to 5-1 this season. They’re now just behind LNG Esports and EDG, who are the only undefeated teams left in the 2022 LPL Spring Split. RNG will have an opportunity to hand LNG Esports their first loss on Feb. 20 during week five.
Now sitting at a 3-1 record, BLG will look to bounce back from their first loss of the split when they take on ThunderTalk Gaming and LNG, the latter of which will be the final game of week four on Feb. 13.
The 2022 LPL Spring Split will return two weeks from now following the Lunar New Year holiday. Week four will begin with a battle between Invictus Gaming and Rare Atom on Feb. 10.
