With the return of the LPL being just around the corner, fans are more than ready for the league to return. The current World Champions are playing in the LPL and their roster remains 100% the same moving into 2022. However, other rosters made changes, some more drastic ones, others remained modest. So to keep fans updated with the changes and transfers, today’s article will rank the teams, as well as mention the probable starting lineup for said team. Yesterday’s article covered the first 9 teams, so today’s will tackle the top 8 teams.
[Related: All 2022 LPL Rosters]
[Related: LPL 2022 Spring Power Rankings Part 1]
8: Ninjas In Pyjamas
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Rich
Jungle: Karsa/XLB
Mid: Rookie
Bot Lane Carry: Photic
Support: ppgod
After another rough-split finishing 0/16, Victory Five and Ninjas in Pyjamas have merged to form a new team. That said, this new team has quite a few old faces. Rookie and Karsa are LPL veterans, both with an undeniable legacy in Lol Esports. Returning LPL viewers will remember Photic, who played for Top Esports in 2020 before JackeyLove joined the team. They will also remember ppgod, who had his breakthrough season on Victory Five, before joining BLG and now returning to NIP/V5. However, it is this familiarity that causes a problem with this NIP squad. In the last year, both of the stars of this roster had rough years, with both Karsa and Rookie finding difficulty to maintain their top-tier performances. Rich, an import top laner arriving from Nogshim Redforce, is also known to be a fairly predictable top laner. So the real volatile players will be the bot lane and the sub jungler, who is also a returning face from 2020. Both XLB and Photic had an amazing year in the LDL, and more than deserve their second chance. Will they manage to breathe life into the veteran squad of NIP?
7: FunPlus Phoenix
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Xiaolaohu
Jungle: Clid
Mid: Gori
Bot Lane Carry: Lwx
Support: Hang
The 2019 World Champions have undergone a near team-wide reboot for 2022. Everyone but Lwx has joined a new squad. To begin their reboot, they officially promoted Xiaolaohu, who played a few games last year, to their main sqad. They also brought Hang over from Rare Atom, where he had an amazing season last summer, making it to the third All-Pro team. Lastly, Gori and Clid joined from Nogshim Redforce and Gen.G, respectively. Both of them have played in the LPL before, albeit for very different durations. While Gori saw no play time the LPL during his four-month stay with EDG, Clid spent 3 entire seasons in China. He will need to bring his experience to this roster since three of the other four players started playing in the major leagues last year. That said, this roster already had an amazing start to the season, making it all the way to the finals of the Demacia Cup, but got reverse swept by Top Esports.
6: Weibo Gaming
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: TheShy
Jungle: Sofm
Mid: Angel
Bot Lane Carry: Huanfeng
Support: SwordArt
A team full of familiar faces, with the return of the prodigal son in SwordArt, Weibo Gaming will want to repeat Suning’s 2020 results. With four of the five members that made it to the Grand Finals at Worlds, the one change is in the top lane. TheShy, who formerly played for IG and won Worlds, will now play in the top lane, replacing Bin, who joined RNG. All five players will want to redeem themselves after a rough season, with Huanfeng being the one who arguably had the best 2021. TheShy will want to prove that he is still one of the best top laners in China, and SwordArt will want to prove that he still belongs in this league. Last Summer, Suning barely made playoffs, and despite almost taking down LNG, they fell apart in the final hurdle. Sofm, Angel and Huanfeng will want to prove that they still have what it takes to fight with the best of the best.
5: Bilibili Gaming
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Breathe
Jungle: Weiwei
Mid: Fofo
Bot Lane Carry: Doggo/Uzi
Support: Crisp
The biggest change of the entire off-season, BLG is finally here to play. Many times in the past, BLG have formed rosters that should make it to the top 5, but always fall to the wayside. This time, they have assembled a superteam of sorts. From the top lane all the way down to the support, all five of BLG’s players have the potential to be a top 3 player in their respective roles. So what keeps BLG from being even higher on the list? Consistency. Breathe, Weiwei and Crisp are all phenomenal players, but when they go up against players of a similar calibre, they can often lose their footing. Breathe looked amazing for WE, until going up against the likes of Bin or Nuguri, where he would just fizzle to the background. Weiwei dominated the jungle in 2020, but when it came to Karsa or Kanavi, they would have his number every time. In both Spring and Summer, Crisp looked unbeatable, right up to the final game of the split where he paled in comparison to Ming and Meiko. That said, if all five of BLG’s players manage to have consistent performances, the sky is the limit for this BLG roster. An oh yeah, they brought in an absolute LPL legend in Uzi, often regarded as the greatest carry of all times. He probably won’t be playing year on in the year though. He tends to only play after the Lunar New Year break.
4: RNG
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Bin
Jungle: Wei
Mid: Xiaohu
Bot Lane Carry: Gala
Support: Ming
The roster that had an incredible 2021, RNG is once again trying something new. Sort of. Xiaohu is once again returning to the mid lane, and after the year that he had in 2021, he should be in top form. Bin is coming from Suning, to join RNG and to replace Xiaohu. While these changes do cover a former weakness this roster had in Cryin, it doesn’t solve all of them. Gala and Ming, despite being top-tier players, have been questionable in the past, especially during the laning phase. Gala also often feels like he has a limited champion pool. While the solution may be a simple issue of coaching, it does limit RNG, especially comparing them to the next 3 teams. While this roster does have the potential to be amazing, it also has the potential to struggle, especially against other top teams.
3: Top Esports
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Zoom
Jungle: Tian/Xiaopeng
Mid: Knight
Bot Lane Carry: JackeyLove
Support: Zhuo
A roster that all should follow closely, Top Esports could return to the top of the league. With 3 changes made, Top have brought themselves back into contention. It’s no secret that the team bombed out tremendously in 2021, missing World entirely. So, they brought Zoom over from their rivals JDG, who picked up their former top laner. They also brought over World Champion and Grand Final’s MVP Tian, who left FPX as a free agent. However, Tian struggled in 2021, facing both physical and mental barriers that left the team in a difficult position. So to avoid running into this issue themselves, Top Esports also brought over Xiaopeng, formerly ThunderTalk’s jungle. Much like their former jungler Karsa, Xiaopeng is a seasoned player that knows his way around the rift. However, unlike their former jungler, Xiaopeng is a shotcaller and a very aggressive player, who plays the same way regardless if he has the advantage or not. When playing with a team that likes to dominate the early game, having a shotcaller that can help transition the early game to the mid game is a blessing. The only question remaining is: Will JackeyLove return to his former form and remain consistent. If so, this team could win the LPL and challenge at Worlds.
2: LNG
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Ale
Jungle: Tarzan
Mid: Doinb
Bot Lane Carry: Light
Support: Iwandy/Lvmao
The team that made quite a lot of noise in summer 2021, LNG made two changes in the off-season. Firstly, Doinb joined, replacing Icon who is taking the split off. Secondly, Lvmao joined, adding depth and a veteran voice to the bot lane. The first change is the massive game-changer for LNG. Icon was undoubtfully the weakest link for LNG, with his greedy style of playing the game often backfiring against the team. Doinb however, has always been known for just the opposite. He is well known for his more supportive style of gameplay, always pairing up with his jungler in hopes to 2v1 the enemy, creating an advantage. Despite his lacklustre performance at Worlds, Doinb has always performed domestically. Should both him and Tarzan perform the same way they did during the regular season of summer 2021, it could be lights out for the rest of the LPL.
1: EDG
Likely Starting Roster:
Top Lane: Flandre
Jungle: Jiejie
Mid: Scout
Bot Lane Carry: Viper
Support: Meiko
Unsurprisingly to most, EDG will sit on top the LPL power rankings for the spring split. Making no changes to their roster that won Worlds, EDG are contenders to return to the top. After a few years away from the top of the LPL, it feels like EDG are back in the rightful spot. All five players are extremely flexible and can excel in any meta. The former mental barriers that Meiko and Scout might have faced, regarding always failing at Worlds, are no longer there. Flandre is bringing in his years of experience to help Meiko with the shotcalling. Jiejie continues to show that no mater the meta, he will always find a way to remain at the top. And last, but certainly not least, Viper, the consistent rock that EDG could lean on throughout all of 2021 is once again on the roster. EDG are sitting on the top of the World, daring anyone to come and take their crown.
And that concludes the second part of the LPL 2022 spring power rankings. Stay tuned as the next article will feature the first 5 days of action, of the LPL 2022 spring split.
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