Image courtesy of JD Gaming.
Following the end of the LEC and LCS, the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) entered the last part of its Spring Split this weekend with the Playoffs Finals opposing JD Gaming to Top Esports.
After a heavily contested Best of 5 where each team was winning games in turns, JD Gaming eventually prevailed and pocketed their first title of LPL champions since they joined the league in 2017.
Although the LPL has been one of the first leagues to be interrupted amid the coronavirus outbreak, matches resumed online in early March with three Bo3 matches a day instead of two to catch up with the western leagues.
By the end of April, the Top 8 LPL teams won their ticket for Playoffs — which are a bit different compared to LEC's or LCS'. Instead of Winners'/Losers' Bracket format, LPL Playoffs use single elimination in Best of 5 where teams obtain byes according to their placement in the Spring Split standings. In other words, the higher a team rank in the Spring Split, the further it gets placed in Playoffs.
As a consequence of this format, their second place in the standings got JD Gaming direct access into semifinals where they met — and crushed 3-0 — the current World champions, FunPlus Phoenix.
In Finals, JD Gaming met Top Esports, a young esports team that joined LPL in 2018 and recently signed former Invictus Gaming AD-carry Yu "JackeyLove" Wen-Bo.
While young, both teams displayed an incredible level of play — leading the Best of 5 to be of the most entertaining series we've ever watched.
In the last game, Top Esports felt apart and JD Gaming immediately seized the opportunity to punish their weakness, closing the match after 28 minutes.
With the MSI being canceled, JD Gaming — just like Cloud9 and G2 Esports — won't be able to shine on the international stage.
However, recent news suggests that Riot Games Korea is planning to organize a friendly tournament between LCK and LPL — which means we could get to see more of them pretty soon.
Until then, GG.
In the absence of MSI, Riot Games decided to set up another tournament bringing together the LPL and the LCK. The event will being online on May 28.
