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Simply put, Team WE got smacked on Sunday as Royal Never Give Up took a clean 2-0 series sweep to close out Day 4 of Week 7 in the League of Legends Pro League in Shanghai.
Let's pretend that Game 2 didn't happen for a moment and discuss Team WE's (8-3, 18-9 match record) abysmal performance in Game 1. Team WE had an early lead over Royal Never Give Up (7-4, 16-11 match record), ballooning in the mid-game after some decisive teamfight wins. Team WE's mid-game powerspikes seemed to put it in complete control, but RNG rallied behind mid laner Li "Xiaohu" Yuan-Hao's Syndra, who put on a clinic in the later stages of the game. Xiaohu did work against WE's pick composition and mid laner Su "xiye" Han-Wei's surprise Malzahar pick, finishing with a 7/1/6 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) for 100 percent kill participation. Once Xiaohu stopped WE's momentum, the rest of RNG picked up the pace to take control in the late game, all started by Xiaohu.
It was clear that Team WE would have to go back to the drawing board for its draft phase in Game 2, but, then, RNG AD carry Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao locked in Vayne. It was surreal, seeing Uzi's legacy champion in 2017 amidst a tank meta that would almost certainly make playing the difficult champion even more complicated, but Uzi took it in stride, as did the rest of RNG. From giving first blood to Uzi at just three minutes to getting Xiaohu's Corki ahead a minute later, RNG jungler Liu "Mlxg" Shi-Yu and his Maokai dominated the early game, giving RNG a 1,000-gold lead at five minutes. What followed next was utter devastation as everyone on RNG seemed to pop off together. The only things preventing RNG from a perfect Game 2 win were three towers and an Ocean Drake, but it was clear to see that RNG was simply on another level tonight.
That's not to say that Team WE are slumping, though, since Team WE did take an early lead in Game 1 and showed brief sparks of life that got swiftly stomped out in Game 2. Moreso, Game 2's win wasn't squarely on Uzi's shoulders, despite RNG's focus on getting him fed. Every member of RNG played its part to perfection in the 24-minute destruction of Team WE, showing that the old king of China was back and hungry for a Summer Split title.
Royal Never Give Up's next victim will be Suning Gaming on Friday at 8 a.m. ET, while Team WE battle Invictus Gaming on Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.