As Wednesday kicked off the playoffs for the LPL 2020 Spring split, the first half of the season is coming to a close. Fifth seed eStar fell to eighth seed WE, and EDG bested RNG in their series. Moving on to the top 6 teams, only four matches remain before the grand finals.
Match 1: TOP vs World Elite
World Elite took down eStars in their Round 1 game. Winning the series in a convincing 3:1 fashion, WE showed that they deserve their spot in playoffs. WE looked better than they have all year, with Teacherma stepping up his game and Jiumeng having his best series of the split. On the opposite side of the rift, TOP are on a 3 series win streak, with all 3 being clean 2:0 matches. While this match won’t likely be a 3:0, TOP are the favorites in the series. Ever since JackeyLove joined the roster, the calls have been much cleaner from TOP. With his shot-calling experience, the team has looked much cleaner, crushing even FPX in their series.
Prediction: TOP
Match 2: EDG vs FunPlus Phoenix
In a rematch of a recent week 6 match, EDG will face off against FPX. EDG took down RNG in their first series of the spring 2020 playoffs, but in the last few weeks of the LPL, RNG didn’t look that great. Even with Jinoo and Jiejie back with the team, Aodi, and Junjia remained as the starting top-side duo. In fact, Junjia performed exceptionally well in the match vs RNG, picking up MVP twice. Meanwhile, FPX lost their last series of the regular split. Even with them playing GimGoon, which they seem to still have better performances with, they lost to TOP in a 2:0 series. If they are going to play GimGoon or Khan is yet to be announced.
Prediction: FPX
Match 3: Invictus Gaming vs Winner of Match 1
The first match of the semifinals will take place on Sunday, April 26. Invictus Gaming will face off against either TOP or World Elite. One thing is for sure, regardless of who IG’s opponent ends up being, it will be a battle for the early game. All three teams do tend to look for early game team comps and get their leads from there. With WE being an excellent team-fighting team, a match between them IG will be decided in the first 10 minutes of the game. However, TOP is similar to IG in the sense that they also like to lane kingdom. Both JackeyLove and Puff love to smash their opponent’s lane in and rotate early, so a battle between those two would be a treat to watch.
Prediction: Invictus Gaming
Match 4: JD Gaming vs Winner of Match 2
The final match before the grand finals, JD Gaming will face whoever wins between FPX and EDG. When JD faced both of these teams, it was before Zoom had returned to the roster, and the results in both matches was a loss. However, JD Gaming went on a tear towards the end of the LPL, and are sitting on a 7 match win streak. Of those 7 matches played, 6 were clean 2:0 victories. Their last game loss was against Suning in week Five. If this streak will continue or not will depend on the victor of the previous match. FPX look like they could defeat JD, with Tian being the only jungler that could keep up with Kanavi. Whereas EDG probably would take a game win but would have a had time winning a best of five.
Prediction: FPX > JDG > EDG
And that will be it for now. The first match of the Semi-finals will happen on Sunday and the second one on Monday. Come back then for a dive into the final match of the LPL 2020 Spring Split.
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Follow JJ on Twitter: @NeonColouredJay.