Victory Five have decimated the reigning World Champions EDward Gaming in back-to-back sub-30 minute games and now take sole possession of first in the 2022 LPL Spring Split.
Today’s match was a battle for sole possession of first place in the split as both EDG and V5 stood at a 7-1 record, tied for first place. For V5, today’s match was an opportunity to showcase that they as a team are the real deal after a streak of three-game series against the bottom half of the league and entered today slowly working on their inconsistencies.
As for EDG, they entered today’s match having the best singular game record and just three individual losses, albeit to a weaker field. Looking like the favorites in this series, EDG looked to use this series as an opportunity to show that they are the best team in the LPL. Instead, they were met with a series of lost fights and snowballs that made them look helpless.
In draft, V5 shocked EDG when they revealed Karsa’s secret Sejuani pick, which up to that point had only been played once in the split.
Game one began as a battle for tempo as EDG’s jungler Jiejie prioritized the top half of the map to support Scout in the mid lane matchup, which V5 jungler Karsa caught and grabbed first blood on Scout at six minutes.
Shortly after, both teams traded kills in the bottom lane when EDG’s duo lane killed V5 support ppgod which was soon followed by a timely roam from Rookie to kill EDG support Meiko.
The first major fight of the game took place at the eight-minute mark in a battle for the Rift Herald with EDG on the objective and V5 as the reactors. Rift Herald was brought down to 2,000 health before Jiejie on the Poppy engaged on ppgod, where they killed him. This, however, allowed V5 to steal the Rift Herald from EDG as V5 was able to chase down the entirety, resulting in a five-man ace for V5 as their gold lead began to exponentially increase from this point onward.
V5 built up a 3,000 gold lead before 10 minutes as they continued to press their advantage onto EDG because of their lead on their solo laners. Rookie solo killed Scout’s Corki as V5 began to collect dragons as a result of this massive gold lead as EDG continued to fall behind in the tempo.
V5 then collected the first two towers of the game in both top and mid just shy of the 15-minute mark, which forced EDG to scrounge their priorities towards the bottom half of the map. EDG was able to grab the first turret after a four-man dive onto the V5 top laner Rich, who was lane swapped for farm, but was forced to play reactionary and wait for the late-game power spike of Caitlyn.
After the 15-minute mark, V5’s advances onto EDG slowed down as they placed priority on collecting dragons over skirmishes and kills. It was not until baron spawn when V5 killed EDG’s top laner Flandre to make a push for the baron.
EDG almost stole the baron due to a timely Poppy ultimate from Jiejie, but just as they were about to take the dragon, Karsa was able to enter the baron pit at the last moment and retake the objective as V5 grabbed two kills from the play.
From here, there was nothing EDG could do as V5 had four dragons and baron buff to close out the game at 27 minutes.
Game two looked to be an opportunity for EDG to bounce back as EDG’s shotcaller Meiko was placed onto the Leona. This allowed him to make more aggressive plays, such as a botl ane roam to grab first blood onto Rookie at five minutes. V5 attempted to gank Scout in the mid lane, and while they were able to get tempo, Scout was able to pick off Karsa and allowed EDG to grab the Rift Herald.
Still, V5’s Karsa was able to naturally bounce back with the Hecarim’s skirmish pressure and keep the gold even at 15 minutes.
This helped them find lingering EDG members to help them regain tempo over EDG on the map. Things got worse for EDG when they attempted to stop V5 from taking the second dragon as V5 killed both of EDG’s damage dealers and aced the entirety of EDG.
V5 grabbed the baron and left EDG defenseless as the reigning World Champions were left at the fountain as V5 closed out the game and series at 25 minutes.
It was pure domination from the side of V5 as EDG was unable to do anything in both games. V5 showcased their early game dominance through Karsa’s strong presence and team fight abilities as they took an important series win in the close race at the top of the standings.
This win places V5 as the top team in the LPL for now with an 8-1 record in the LPL 2022 Spring Split. They will have an opportunity to boost that record up to 9-1 when they take on LNG Esports in the final match of week six on Feb. 27.
As for EDG, this loss drops them down to 7-2. Though they have only two losses, EDG has been left relatively unchallenged, and in their two series against the top four in the LPL, they lost 2-0. While they still maintain their spot in the top four, EDG will need to regain their 2021 form if they want to avoid having a second-half slump in the close playoff race.
They will attempt to start this by taking on Top Esports, which has become one of the rising teams in the split. This match will take place on Feb. 26.
