EDward Gaming Recover After Their First Loss in LPL Spring 2021

EDward Gaming came out of nowhere and took everyone by storm at the beginning of LPL Spring 2021. They won 8 matches in a row and looked unbeatable, even though the region has no less than 3 teams that finished in the top 8 at Worlds 2020: Suning, Top Esports, and JD Gaming. Against such formidable competitors, a team that had finished 10^th in LPL Summer 2020 was not expected to thrive. But then again, this is League of Legends. And not only that, it’s League of Legends in China, a region famous for its fiercely competitive teams.

EDward Gaming’s Results

EDG began LPL Spring 2021 with a 2 – 1 victory against OMG. This didn’t trigger any alarm bells, because OMG is not a big name in China.

The second match, played against FunPlus Phoenix, already raised some questions: how could a team that ranked so low in the previous season defeat the 2019 Worlds champions? In both of the 2 games they won in this Bo3, EDG used Orianna. This champion was about to become one of their most picked.

The third match came against LGD. Once again, it looked a bit strange. After all, LGD had finished 9^th – 12^th at Worlds in the previous year. EDG was a nobody.

In the 4^th match, JDG learned the hard way that the Chinese region now had a new leader, or at least a serious contender for the throne. And given JDG’s results in 2020, which include the following: 1^st place in LPL Spring, 2^nd place in LPL Summer, and 5^th – 8^th place at Worlds, I think that everyone realized immediately that EDG was no joke. The results they had obtained up until that point were no mere accidents. From bookmakers to analysts, everyone did a 180 on EDG and started to regard them with the respect they deserved. And in the next 4 matches, EDG proved worthy of that respect.

ThunderTalk Gaming, Victory Five, Suning, and Bilibili Gaming all fell victim to EDG’s playstyle. The next match was going to take place against Invictus Gaming. And people knew it was a big test for EDG, because iG had a scary past. In 2020 they hadn’t done that great but in 2019 they won LPL Spring and finished 3^rd – 4^th at Worlds. And indeed, iG proved to be strong enough to take down EDG. And what’s surprising is how they did it. In both games, they used the Azir plus Rell combo. EDG were denied their Orianna in both games and that hurt them quite a bit.

EDG’s Recovery

After suffering their first loss in LPL Spring 2021, some were concerned about EDG’s ability to recover and then continue to be as dominant as before. But their 10^th match clearly proved everyone wrong. We can’t draw a final conclusion yet, because the team they defeated is currently ranked 17^th in the region with an abysmal record of 1 W – 10 L. But based on how the match went, I think we can expect EDG to do well in the weeks ahead. I’m just not sure how they’ll deal with RNG in their next encounter. Like iG, this competitor is very strong and has a great score on top of that: 8 W – 1 L.

Photo credit: Riot Games