After a great start to the 2020 LPL Spring Split regular season, the rookie eStar squad couldn’t maintain their lead and fell from first place to fifth in the standings.
Even though their first playoff match was arguably against the weakest opponent in the postseason, Team WE, eStar weren’t able to deliver and lost 3-1. Team WE proved to be the superior team today after barely clinging onto a playoff spot.
This win propels Team WE to the quarterfinals where they’ll have to face the upgraded Top Esports squad that’s looked phenomenal after their acquisition of JackeyLove.
EStar’s losing streak started after Vici Gaming banned out Jarvan IV and won against the rookie squad. Vici identified Jarvan IV as their strongest pick that enabled Star to teamfight well and control games. More teams started picking up on this and denied eStar their best-performing champ, which put their jungler in a dire position with his champion pool.
Team WE capitalized on eStar’s jungler being weaker on other champions today and invaded aggressively over the entire course of the series. With eStar being rookies and having no alternative tactics, they couldn’t find good angles to win games.
Even though eStar found an alternative jungler in Olaf for the third game, Team WE changed their draft for the last game by first picking him, putting eStar’s jungler in a bad spot. Without the Olaf carrying like it did in the third game, eStar lost and were knocked out of this split’s playoffs.
The rookie squad should be proud of themselves, though, especially since the lineup was assembled in the last week before the LPL Spring Split began. They were in first place in the standings for some time with their innovative gameplay, but it wasn’t enough once teams learned their playstyle. If they expand their champion pool coming into the next split, they’ll become a fearsome opponent.
Team WE could be following JD Gaming’s path to success from the 2019 LPL Spring Split. JDG were the last team to qualify for the playoffs and they reached the finals and almost won it all. Even though their opponents look much stronger compared to last year, the dream is still alive for Team WE.
The LPL Spring Split playoffs continue tomorrow with Edward Gaming facing Royal Never Give Up without legendary ADC Uzi. Both teams looked shaky in their last regular split games, dropping series to bottom-of-the-barrel teams. Tune into the official Riot LPL broadcast tomorrow at 4am CT to see who will get a chance to face FunPlus Phoenix in the next round.
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