LPL: Royal Never Give Up

Spring Season Record: 14-2 (29-8)

This is my darling as far as teams go. I love watching RNG and in the LPL Spring Playoffs, they gave us a great storyline after losing 0-3 to FPX to scrap back against EDG in their next match and then absolutely take it to FPX in the finals. If there is a team in the field who can beat DWG KIA, it is RNG. Behind their rising star and carry GALA, the sky is the limit with this team. The catch? They have to be sure that they are consistent from game to game. In the LPL Spring Split and Spring Playoffs, there were games where both draft and play were wildly off mark. To beat the top teams in the world, those mistake games have to be almost nonexistent.

Lane Breakdown

In this section I am going to go lane by lane (or position by position) and grade out each player and set some expectations for what we should see from them in the group stage! Obviously playing on stage in an actual tournament can give us some pretty special moments but I will outline what should be the most likely outcome.

Top Lane (Xiaohu): Interesting note about Xiaohu is that he was previously RNG’s mid laner from 2015 until this past December. So for him to have transitioned as well as he has is pretty impressive. Especially when you look at his champion pool moving from Orianna, Twisted Fate, and Syndra while in the mid lane to Gnar, Gragas, and Camille in the top lane. Now he does bring a different view to the lane with aggressive lane focused picks like Lucian and Akali which don’t facilitate as much in the team fight phase but shine in the ability to dominante the 1v1 matchup in lane. Look out for Xiaohu to set the standard for top laners in this tournament and look for big kill totals, especially since he had one of the highest average kills per game for top laners in the LPL playoff with 3.6 per game.

Jungle (Wei): Behind GALA, Wei has the most kills from the Spring Split (125) and represents a win condition that most teams ignore. In the Spring Split he had second most kills (125), second most assists (297), and highest kill participation (70.7%) on RNG. Wei has such a diverse champion pool but most are focused on being aggressive and giving Wei the ability to make the picks he wants. The big pick to look out for is his Hecarim (yes I know this is just a generally strong pick right now) as well as his Nidalee. RNG will need to rely on him more in later rounds of the tournament but the matchup of Wei versus Canyon will be must see League of Legends for sure. 

Mid Lane (Cryin): I have been a pretty vocal critic of Cryin, especially in the most recent playoffs. He started so incredibly slow and was a very real liability for RNG but to his credit, he had finished strong against EDG and FPX. Normally he is best known for his safer play and ability to work around the needs of Wei and GALA in terms of picking up farm and gold but there are times when Cryin falls behind in the laning phase and that could be an issue in the international tournament. RNG has to draft him into positions to be successful. I expect him to be on his Orianna pick (7-2 in the Spring Split and 3-2 in playoffs) or his Viktor pick (7-0 in the Spring Split and 2-2 in playoffs) and allow him to control waves in the mid lane with minimal risk. He should be a great pick in the early rounds but be weary in the later rounds with him. 

Bot/AD Carry (GALA): In 54 games GALA dropped 302 total kills. While I think other options this tournament like Zven, Ghost, and Carzzy are all good in their own right, there is no ADC who is more of the carry for their team (in a major region) than GALA is. What is amazing is that it isn’t just through 2v2 fights that GALA gets ahead. In fact many times RNG will sacrifice the early game in the bot lane and GALA will pick up farm and items later and help win the pivotal fights.Get him on Kai’Sa and let this man carry.  

Support (Ming): Ming is the ideal support for RNG. He excels at playing aggressively in lane but rarely overaggresses. And the overaggression I am speaking of isn’t just getting too excited and starting bad fights. In this case I am referring to also leaving his carries exposed to the enemy team. Ming treads this fine line between catching enemies out but also making sure that GALA has a clean teamfight. He will opt into the Alistar, Leona, Rell, and Nautilus picks this tournament and it should play pretty well for RNG. 

Cann’s Final Thoughts

I think there is a real chance for RNG here.I didn’t put them as my champions because I think it is really going to be a hard mountain to climb. That being said, I will be definitely rooting for them and I think their ability to be cool under pressure will be the difference maker here. There seems to be a pretty big gap between the LCK/LPL this year and the rest of the pack and I think this will make a world of difference.   

Cann’s Record Prediction: 17-6
Cann’s Final Placement Prediction: Tournament Runner Up