The first match of the LPL 2020 Spring Playoffs pitted the 5^th and 8^th seeds, eStar and Team WE, in the first best-of-five series. For two consecutive years now, LPL representatives have claimed the coveted Worlds trophy. Can there be a three-peat for the Worlds 2020?

Find out as we cover the entire playoffs bracket, and we’ll start with the two LPL rookie teams brimming with potential for success.

This was not the first time they had battled each other. In fact, eStar beat Team WE 2-0 in Week 6 of the Spring Season. The fact that Team WE had barely snagged the 8^th seed from OMG in Week 7 made them the underdog in a lot of people’s minds. It would certainly be an interesting development to see if Team WE could win, but the statistics and the hype were on eStar’s favor.

Game 1:

Bans:

[WE] Azir, Leblanc, Jarvan IV, Thresh, Kassadin

[ES] Pantheon, Ornn, Kalista, Galio, Rumble

Team WE – Blue Side

Top: Morgan (Sett) Jungle: beishang (Trundle) Mid: Teacherma (Syndra) Bot: Jiumeng (Varus) Support: Missing (Braum)

eStar – Red Side

Top: Xiaobai (Renekton) Jungle: Wei (Rek’Sai) Mid: Cryin (Corki) Bot: Wink (Aphelios) Support: ShiauC (Nautilus)

The momentum for Game 1 was extremely shaky. Teacherma cemented his stance for the early lane priority, while beishang punished Wei for trying to invade against a Trundle. Chaotic teamfights ensued in the botlane for the entirety of the early game, and in 15 minutes eStar would come out with a 1.5k gold lead with two blueside towers taken down.

This lead completely flipped on its head at 16 minutes, where a battle for Ocean drake ensued. eStar seized the dragon, but WE capitalized on the damaged team with a 5v3, zoning Xiaobai in the midlane and away from his teammates.

From there on, WE shook off their early game losses into a midgame advantage, wrestling complete control from eStar. By 20 minutes, Team WE had a 1.3k gold advantage, and were capable enough to force an ultimatum on Baron Nashor against eStar, much to the former’s benefit with a triple kill and secured Baron buff.

By 30 minutes after constant sieging and picking, Team WE now had a 2k gold advantage along with push priority. This was a landslide victory after the 16-minute Drake fiasco, and they manage to close out the game at 34 minutes with a 10.8k gold lead, and a 1-0 in the series.

Game 2:

Bans:

[WE] Azir, Leblanc, Jarvan IV, Kassadin, Thresh

[ES] Pantheon, Ornn, Kalista, Syndra, Galio

Team WE – Blue Side

Top: Morgan (Sett) Jungle: beishang (Trundle) Mid: Teacherma (Aurelion Sol) Bot: Jiumeng (Varus) Support: Missing (Braum)

eStar – Red Side

Top: Xiaobai (Renekton) Jungle: Wei (Olaf) Mid: Cryin (Rumble) Bot: Wink (Aphelios) Support: ShiauC (Nautilus)

Game 2 started off hopeful on both fronts as Team WE took immediate control of the game by the team’s mid and jungle duo rotating towards the toplane, securing first blood on Cryin and a 1v3 dive on Xiaobai. ES countered with a back-to-back successful teamfight at 6 minutes and 12 minutes, securing both Ocean and Cloud drakes along the way.

By midgame, eStar had established a substantial lead of 3k gold advantage in 14 minutes, dwindling down to 2k gold advantage by 20 minutes. Team WE was happy to respond by taking down the toplane inner turret 23 minutes in while the former took the Mountain drake, priming for a Mountain Soul win condition.

28 minutes into the match, eStar once again lost control of the game. At a desire to claim the Mountain Soul, they accepted a 4v4 coming out of a skirmish with damaged allies. Team WE took the dragon and beat eStar along with it, because the latter did not manage to gain a numbers advantage. During this entire fight, Xiaobai was teleporting at the botlane red buff, and was too distant to even make it with a living team.

Immediately after this turn of events, Team WE took the first Baron of the game and sieged botlane, while Teacherma solo sieged the midlane to exert pressure. Just like Game 1, they may have lost their early game lead, but capitalizing on the mistakes in the midgame gave them better chances to win.

The game was decided when another Baron dance ensued, but was a ploy to get eStar to come and contest. With Team WE’s proper setup and peeling, Jiumeng managed to get a pentakill as Varus in the Spring Playoffs, and immediately took the grand opportunity to secure another win at 37 minutes and a 2-0 series lead.

Game 3:

Bans:

[ES] Pantheon, Renekton, Syndra, Aurelion Sol, Galio

[WE] Azir, Jarvan IV, Trundle, Maokai, Mordekaiser

eStar – Blue Side

Top: Xiaobai (Ornn) Jungle: Wei (Olaf) Mid: Cryin (LeBlanc) Bot: Wink (Varus) Support: ShiauC (Thresh)

Team WE – Red Side

Top: Morgan (Sett) Jungle: beishang (Kindred) Mid: Teacherma (Nautilus) Bot: Jiumeng (Kalista) Support: Missing (Blitzcrank)

With the tournament life of eStar at stake, it was high time for both teams to switch up their gameplan and either finish the series once and for all, or to reverse sweep the series in eStar’s favor. Being the hyped team in 5^th seed certainly put pressure on them to do better.

Both teams aimed to split the map. beishang had pressure on the bottom side of the map, and Wei on the top side. This allowed eStar to cripple one of the key engagers of Team WE, and they set to camp Morgan’s Sett three times and obtain top priority in the laning phase.

At 15 minutes, both teams were equal in gold, and were equal in the chances of winning. Both teams danced around dragons and Baron a lot for the entire course of Game 3, but eStar came out on top of all these skirmishes because of Xiaobai’s well-executed setups with Ornn’s Call of the Forge God.

At 29 minutes, it was Team WE’s turn to act desperate by brute-forcing a Baron fight. Because of eStar’s excellent drafting with the Ornn engage and LeBlanc picking priority targets, they clearly had the upper hand in this game as they sealed WE’s fate by mobilizing straight to base after the objective. eStar finally snagged a game and now sat 1-2 behind in the series, pressured to reverse sweep the series.

Game 4:

Bans:

[WE] Azir, Leblanc, Jarvan IV, Kassadin, Thresh

[ES] Pantheon, Ornn, Kalista, Syndra, Galio

Team WE – Blue Side

Top: Morgan (Renekton) Jungle: beishang (Olaf) Mid: Teacherma (Galio) Bot: Jiumeng (Aphelios) Support: Missing (Nautilus)

eStar – Red Side

Top: Xiaobai (Ornn) Jungle: Wei (Lee Sin) Mid: Cryin (Rumble) Bot: Wink (Varus) Support: ShiauC (Sett)

Team WE was one game away from Quarterfinals, and they didn’t want to allow eStar another chance to breathe. They drafted accordingly to empower Jiumeng’s Aphelios through picks that can peel and tank for him, with champions like Galio and Nautilus.

They started to prioritize dragons and Rift Heralds more than ever, making sure to sneak them away from eStar who could not roam due to the lane state and excellent wave manipulation by Team WE. By 15 minutes, they sat on a whopping 3k gold advantage against eStar, who had done little for the early game.

The most skeptical move of the game was Xiaobai being preemptively sent to the Baron pit, much to the benefit of Team WE as they snagged a free kill. Cryin clicked the Blasting Cone adjacent to the pit too soon, pushing their precious engager into a hopeless situation.

From 29 minutes, the series was officially over as Team WE secured the Mountain soul. With their beefed up resistances, they were more than happy to engage on eStar who got insanely wiped right after the dragon was secured. The win conditions had been met and after 30 minutes, Team WE moved to the Quarterfinals against Top Esports.

Concluding Thoughts

I think what brought Team WE’s dominating win as the playoffs’ black horse was the element of surprise, particularly in their drafting and the individual players’ raw skill.

The team was known for their “Midgame or Bust” strategy where they either steamroll the midgame or die trying. In normal circumstances, the team with the early game lead tends to snowball and win the game before the other team can muster enough power to push back.

Teacherma in particular caught my interest. As a fellow midlaner, I too understand how crucial midlane priority and roaming is, especially in Season 10. When he brought out the Syndra pick rather than the usual roaming secondary champions like Aurelion Sol or Galio, people were surprised at how much he was able to control the lane state and make crucial picks against eStar. It should be noted that he was the MVP of Game 1 because of these factors.

In the banning phase, Team WE understood how much of a playmaker eStar’s ShiauC is. They targeted him for the latter bans by banning his iconic hook champions like Thresh. eStar targeted bans against Teacherma’s global-range picks like Galio and Aurelion Sol knowing how much roaming he would do to get the botlane ahead.

On the topic of eStar, I would like to address how poorly they drafted the first two games with the toplane/jungle duo picks. LPL teams commonly draft a team set on reaching lategame win conditions through Dragon Soul, Baron, or otherwise. Thus it was disappointing to see picks like Renekton and Rek’Sai unoptimized, as they were known for being early game bullies meant to halt the enemy’s scaling progress.

Nonetheless, I think eStar put up a good fight against WE, and the latter was more than prepared to adapt against the top dogs of the LPL Spring Series.

On the 23^rd of May, catch LPL’s Round 1 Match 2, where EDward Gaming (EDG) and Royal Never Give Up (RNG) are set to duke it out on Summoner’s Rift for a chance at the quarterfinals as well.