After watching Team WE pull off the big upset against eStar yesterday, all eyes were tuned in today to see the battle between the sixth and seventh seeds: Edward Gaming (EDG) and Royal Never Give Up (RNG).
RNG had gotten the better of EDG in a 2-1 victory during the regular season, but the playoffs are always another story – especially as it was a best of five series.
The LPL broadcast team voted in favor of EDG five to one, so it would be up RNG to prove them wrong.
This was the first time EDG and RNG had ever met in the first round, making it a high stakes affair for both. They’re also the two best team fighting teams in the LPL, so there were hopes for lots of fireworks.
Game 1:
Bans:
[EDG] Senna – Jarvan IV – Aphelios – Gangplank – Mordekaiser
[RNG] Sett – Sejuan – Kalista – Rakan – Thresh
EDG – Blue Side
Top: Aodi (Ornn) Jungle: Junjia(Trundle) Mid: Scout (Azir) Bot: Hope (Miss Fortune) Support: Meiko (Yuumi)
RNG – Red Side
Top: Langx (Vladimir) Jungle: XLB (Kindred) Mid: Xiaohu (Syndra) Bot: Betty (Varus) Support: Ming (Braum)
Scout grabbed first blood for EDG in the third minute, working with JunJia to catch Xiaohu in the midlane, waiting for his opponent to burn the flash before going in for the kill.
Xiaohu again got himself caught in the seventh minute, and got triple teamed by Junjia, Scout, and Meiko. EDG also grabbed the first dragon.
A big fight broke out at the herald in minute 8, with Xiahou dying for a third time along with XLB.
EDG used their advantage to drop a herald on top lane, which helped them take down the T1 turret along with most of the T2 turret. Betty was able to answer for RNG by taking down the bottom T1 turret.
RNG finally got a kill in the 13th minute, catching an overextended Scout. EDG were able to push them away fast enough, though, to pick up their second dragon soul.
EDG held a 4-1 kill lead at the 15th minute, but the gold was even.
EDG pulled off a sleight of hand trick in the 18th minute, dropping a herald in mid to open up the chance for their third dragon. That gambit worked, but they then lost the team fight afterwards, finding the full squad deleted to flip the kill lead 6-4 in RNG’s favor along with a 3K gold advantage.
RNG started to snowball in the midgame, and took out Scout I the midlane in the 23rd minute before grabbing an infernal soul for themselves.
RNG started the Baron in the 26th minute, but Aodi showed why he was the best Ornn in the league, helping wipe everyone except Xiaohu at the Baron as he also stole the Baron at the very last second. POTG
At the 28th minute, it was suddenly even in gold again, with RNG only holding a 9-8 kill lead. Aodi again threw another great call of the forge god to catch Betty, as the kill score was tied.
Aodi did fall in the 29th minute, getting taken out at the dragon, but he did enough while helping EDG grab a fourth soul.
The momentum had swung in EDG’s favor half an hour in the game. It was still a tight game at the 32nd minute, with RNG actually having downed more turrets while being ahead 10-9 in kills as the gold stayed even – and now the death timers were going to make the difference.
EDG started the Baron in the 33rd minute, hoping to draw RNG into a fight in a tight area, and that didn’t work at first. A minute later, EDG got their fight, but RNG were the ones who answered back with a Baron steal at the cost of three deaths.
It looked like they would then win out on the team fight, but suddenly saw themselves on the losing end. That big loss for RNG allowed EDG to pick up the elder dragon.
EDG made their big push into the mid lane in the 37th minute, and it was all over by the 38th minute. It ended with EDG ahead 17-10 in kills, and 6K gold.
Hope’s Miss Fortune was a huge difference maker, going 9/1/4.
Game 2:
Bans:
[EDG] Senna – Jarvan Iv – Aphelios – Gangplank – Vladimir
[RNG] Sett – Azir – Kallista – Rakan – Thresh
EDG – Blue Side
Top: Aodi (Ornn) Jungle: Junjia(Trundle) Mid: Scout (Syndra) Bot: Hope (Miss Fortune) Support: Meiko (Yuumi)
RNG – Red Side
Top: Langx (Sylas) Jungle: XLB (Kindred) Mid: Xiaohu (Rumble) Bot: Betty (Varus) Support: Ming (Braum)
Game 2 started off as a more casual affair, with no kills in the first five minutes and EDG grabbing a slight gold lead.
EDG grabbed the first dragon in the sixth minute. The first deaths of the game came for Aodi and XLB in the top lane to make it 1-1 in the eighth minute. Scout went down to make it 2-1 for RNG later, but EDG picked up the herald. EDG wasted their herald in the 11th minute, unable to take out the T1 turret.
RNG grabbed their first dragon in the 12th minute, and it was again looking like a tight game with the kill score unchanged and the gold even in the 13th minute.
In the 14th minute, RNG had wrested some control away, pushing their kill lead to 5-1.
RNG committed to the second dragon in the 17th minute, while EDG decided not to challenge and push the top and mid lanes.
In the 21st minute, EDG managed to take out Xiaohu and Ming at the baron, helping swing the game to an even point again, with Hope’s bullet time making a huge dent in RNG’s life and Aodi’s call of the forge god well-timed again.
EDG pushed aggressively toward the dragon in the 23rd minute, but RNg were the ones to grab their third soul. However, EDG again won out the team fight at the objective, tying the kills at 6-6 and giving them a 1K gold advantage.
RNG used his hijack to prevent Aodi from using his call of the forge god, and it certainly made a difference.
EDG picked another fight in the 26th minute and used knockups and great coordination to push their kill lead to 9-6. That great performance then opened up the Baron for them.
EDG made a strong push in the mid lane in the 28th minute, taking out all of the turrets and the inhibitor down. EDG pulled out after that, then grabbed a second dragon for themselves. 30 minutes in, EDG had a 5K gold lead in addition to their 9-6 kill lead and were ahead 5-2 in towers.
EDG pushed top lane in the 31st minute and took out the inhibitor, pushing their advantage even further. Again, EDG wisely pulled out of the base after the inhibitor to set up for baron.
EDG pushed in into the base for the final time after catching Xiaohu outside of position in the 32nd minute, and then used a one man advantage in the final team fight to delete RNG to win ahead 14-6 in kills and 8K in gold.
Hope had a killer game with 21K damage while using Miss Fortune again, but Aodi stood out the most with a 4/1/9 performance.
Game 3:
Bans:
[EDG] Senna, Jarvan IV, Aphelios, Thresh, Braum
[RNG] Sett, Azir, Kallista, Ekko, Leblanc
EDG – Blue Side
Top: Aodi (Mordekaiser) Jungle: Junjia(Trundle) Mid: Scout (Syndra) Bot: Hope (Miss Fortune) Support: Meiko (Nautilus)
RNG – Red Side
Top: Langx (Ornn) Jungle: XLB (Kindred) Mid: Xiaohu (Zoe) Bot: Betty (Varus) Support: Ming (Morgana)
Facing themselves on the wrong end of match point, RNG some changes by drafting Ornn to take him away from Aodi. Xiaohu also picked up a rarely available Zoe, while Ming opted to pick up Morgana.
First blood went to RNG in the 3rd minute, but EDG answered by wiping out Betty and Ming at the botlane to make it 2-1.
It was 2-2 by the 5th minute as RNG grabbed the slight gold lead. RNG took the first dragon in the eighth minute with no contest as EDG decided to go for the rift herald instead.
Xiaohu baited Scout into a gank in the 12th minute, but the botlane battle was once against won by EDG to push their kill lead to 4-3 and take the slight gold lead.
RNG took the second dragon in the 14th minute while EDG took the first turret. RNG then took the T1 turret in the mid lane while also downing Aodi to make it 4-4.
RNG started to work toward the snowball, taking a herald. For EDG, Hope found himself with 7K gold by the 15th minute, again making himself dangerous and a point of worry for RNG.
Aodi, who had performed so well in the first two games, was bullied most of the game. He had his third death by the 17th minute and was largely a nonfactor.
Hope stole the dragon with a well-placed bullet time in the 20th minute, while JunJia got the cheeky escape by running all the way into the RNG base. That started to push the question of whether or not RNG would again start to falter in the midgame.
RNG pulled out a big team fight win by taking down Aodi, JunJia and Scout in the mid lane to push their kill lead to 9-6. Langx threw out a great call of the forge god to help set that play up, and a chains of corruption forced hope to go away.
RNG again pushed EDG again in the mid lane in the 25th minute, giving themselves a third soul and looking a lot better.
EDG took down a team fight 2-1 in the 26th minute, but it came at the cost of Hope’s first death.
The next big fight came at baron in the 27th minute, with EDG winning out to take out Ming. Aodi started to pick it up in the midgame, though.
EDG caught RNG again in the 29th minute, tying the kill score at 9-9 and starting the baron with the two- man advantage. They couldn’t take advantage but were able to take the Baron.
At the 31st minute, it was 14-11 kills for RNG and a 1K gold advantage. While Betty and Ming struggled early in game 3, they started to find their feet later on.
EDG pushed hard from the bottom as their Baron buff worked toward expiring and weren’t able to take down T2 turret.
RNG started up the elder dragon in the 37th minute, and EDG went in to contest but were deleted and lost shortly after.
RNG finished 20-11 on the kill board, and had five dragons to one, along with a 7K gold lead as they forced a game 4.
Langx had a hell of an Ornn performance, finishing 5/3/10. It was a great call for him to steal Ornn from Aodi.
Game 4:
Bans:
[EDG] Senna, Jarvan IV, Aphelios, , Syndra
[RNG] Sett, Azir, Sejuani, Lissandra, Leblanc
EDG – Red Side
Top: Aodi (Ornn) Jungle: Junjia(Graves) Mid: Scout (Zoe) Bot: Hope (Varus) Support: Meiko (Karma)
Zoe
RNG – Blue Side
Top: Langx (Aatrox) Jungle: XLB (Trundle) Mid: Xiaohu (Galio) Bot: Betty (Miss Fortune) Support: Ming (Morgana)
LNG switched to the blue side in game 4. Both teams switched up their lineups a lot, with Miss Fortune and Trundle moving over to RNG, as Zoe and Varus moved to EDG.
The game started furiously, and before the second minute EDG had taken out Langx and Ming in a very early 5v5 team fight.
Xiaohu went down in the third minute, getting punished after getting caught in between the turret and three EDG members for a 3-0 kill lead 1.5K gold advantage before the fifth minute of the game.
It was a disastrous start for RNG. Aodi survived a 3v1 and managed to get a kill before going down himself. EDG were ahead 4-1 and 2K gold before the clock read 6:00.
Instead of going on tilt, it looked like losing the previous game made EDG focus. Hope and Ming made a clutch play to somehow help EDG win a 4v3 two kills to one for a 6-2 kill lead.
Betty threw out a bullet time in the 10th minute and was rewarded with a death to make it 7-2. RNG weren’t going to throw it though, taking the first tower of the game with their rift herald. EDG answered by grabbing the first dragon of the game.
Ming shut down Hope in the 12th minute, making it 7-3, forcing EDG back a bit and also cutting the gold deficit to a little over 1K.
A team fight in the botlane saw Langx and Ming go down to push the kill lead to 9-3 and their gold advantage back to 3K.
RNG grabbed the second dragon in the 17th minute, but EDG answered by pushing the top lane with a herald and took down two turrets to exert more pressure. At minute 18, they were closing in on a 5K gold advantage.
Scout’s poke damage with Zoe was hard for RNG to deal with, forcing RNG to move back as EDG also took out a T2 turret in the midlane.
The snowball was real for EDG by the 22nd minute, who were ahead 6-2 in turrets, ahead 5K gold, and took a second dragon a minute later.
A team fight opened up in the 26th minute, and Aodi threw out another clutch call of the forge god to help them take out Ming and Langx before EDG took down the botlane inhibitor.
EDG grabbed their third dragon in the 28th minute and were also ahead 11-3 in kills and 6K gold.
EDG won another huge team fight in the RNG base in the 31st minute, but RNG managed to somehow hold on. They took out four EDG members but were left with a bare nexus and two inhibitors there for the taking. It was a 15-7 kill lead at this point and needing a miracle to stop EDG.
EDG grabbed their fourth dragon in the 34th minute. RNG tried to push for a last gasp team fight in the 35th minute, but that was all she wrote for their LPL Spring Playoffs bid.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The story of the series was team fights. EDG continually won out the big team fights at the objectives and showed a great deal of composure in the first couple of games.
RNG found themselves in trouble in the mid to late game in the first two contests, unable to take advantage of early leads. But taking away Aodi’s Ornn made a huge difference in game 3. Giving Ornn back to Aodi played a role in the deciding game.
A big matchup that RNG lost was the midlane, as Scout soundly outplayed Xiaohu in EDG’s victories.
Hope, in addition, barely made a mistake in four games. He was big in all of them, which was punctuated by by him doing 36.2K damage in the final game to go with a 7/2/9 performance. For context, the whole of RNG did a total of 45.9K damage in game 4.
Lineups worked in EDG’s favor for the most part, and their choices for the final game really paid off. EDG used great kiting and poking to control the flow of most battles. most noticeably in game 4.
This was RNG’s earliest exit from the LPL Playoffs. They’ve missed the playoffs in the past, but had never failed to make it past the first round before – adding even more salt to the wound.
EDG now look forward to facing FPX in the next round, and that one should be a doozy. More impressively, they also won with multiple players who had not tasted the LPL playoffs before.
