Victory Five took down Top Esports 2-1 to kick off the seventh week of the 2020 LPL Summer Split.
Entering this matchup with V5, Top, the defending LPL champions, were 8-0 and had only dropped two games since the start of split. But V5 became the first team to take a series off of them, while also improving to 8-2 on the season.
This series was all about the bot lane. V5 support Ppgod set up many skirmishes for his carry, Samd. They both eliminated Top support Yuyanjia several times without needing the help of their teammates in the early game.
Top also made some great individual plays, though. Mid laner knight’s Cassiopeia was particularly strong in the second game, producing a one-vs-three highlight-reel moment. Despite Top’s players showing great synergy, V5’s clean macro coordination and teamfights were often better.
Both teams showed relentless aggression throughout the match. They tried to make plays happen around the Rift even when they were behind, finishing games with high kill counts in classic LPL style.
The last game’s gold difference reflects how balanced things were between these teams. Top lost this one despite getting both Nashor buffs and winning the majority of the mid-game teamfights.
V5’s winning play also emphasized the style of the entire series. Even with several V5 players waiting to respawn, they engaged in a fight against Top in the Baron pit and came out victorious. They rushed toward Top’s Nexus and claimed the series win.
Top remain in first place in the LPL Summer Split standings despite this loss, but V5 are right behind them. They both have six to seven matches left before heading into the playoffs.
Split after split, V5 kept changing the players in most positions and even though the roster retains two core players from their 0-17 series score in the Spring Split, it is looking stronger than ever.
Y4 has been playing with mid laner Li “Mole” Hao-Yan since the Summer Split 2019. While Mole did go through a couple of roleswaps in the top lane and briefly in the jungle, he settled himself as the mid laner of the V5 roster.
Y4 alongside Mole did not find much success in the previous splits, yet in the current Summer Split they look on par with other top tier mid and bottom laners. This is due to a better individual performance and better team overall.
The organization acquired three mostly unknown players, the top laner Yu “Biubiu” Lei-Xin and jungler Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han from Suning and the support ppgod from FunPlus Phoenix. All three acquired players had mediocre results on their teams, with ppgod sitting on the bench since FPX was fielding in World Champion Crisp for the role.