Team WE made quick work of Newbee on Wednesday in the League of Legends Pro League playoffs, taking a 3-0 sweep in Shanghai to move on to the semifinals.
If you or anyone you know has ever wanted to see what a top-tier LPL team can do against an unprepared opponent, look no further than Team WE's performance against Newbee. This series had several classic tropes of the LPL: constant early aggression, early Baron kills, and monstrous performances from the AD carry position. Specifically, WE AD carry Jin "Mystic" Seong-jun had a coming out party of sorts at Newbee's expense, taking over the series in a manner that calls to mind Royal Never Give Up AD carry, Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao. With WE moving on to face RNG, the clash of AD carry prodigies will be a sight to behold.
Throughout the series on Wednesday, Team WE tore through Newbee in teamfights on the back of Mystic. Granted, WE often stumbled early, going too far on the aggressive with late game scaling compositions. In Games 1 and 3, Newbee took early leads after WE went for questionable early fights pre-10 minutes, exposing what might be a weakness for WE. WE's inability to say "no" to teamfights gave NB plenty of opportunities to take control of every game, but it didn't matter much. Team WE was simply too prepared for Newbee in this series.
Once again, this series was the Mystic show, plain and simple. Sure, jungler Xiang "Condi" Ren-Jie had a solid series on the frontline, engaging fights for WE with aplomb, and support Nam "Ben" Dong-hyun did a good job keeping Mystic safe, but Mystic still popped off this series. Considering Newbee's previous series win against Suning Gaming, where AD carry Lin "Lwx" Wei-Xiang had a phenomenal showing, it's incredible how much Mystic was able to shut Lwx down. Mystic consistently beat the Newbee AD carry in the laning phase, did more damage in teamfights, made more impactful plays, and, overall, just did his job better. Newbee is a good team, make no mistake about it, but Team WE was simply that much better on Wednesday.
Next up for Team WE is a series against Royal Never Give Up in the semifinals, a rematch of last split's finals. Not only will this put star AD carries against each other, but the winner of this series will guarantee a spot at this year's World Championships. Mark your calendars and set your alarms for 7 a.m. ET on Friday, and get ready for one hell of a match.