After a lengthy week of playoffs in the League of Legends Pro League, fans were treated to a pair of semifinal matches that saw Royal Never Give Up and EDward Gaming prevail once the dust settled.
By far the biggest storyline of the spring split has been the dominance of Invictus Gaming. The team romped through the LPL with an incredible 18-1 record to punch its ticket directly into the semifinals. While RNG were once titans of China, the 2018 iteration of the team struggled. Against all odds, RNG found its former prowess early Saturday morning to overcome IG.
IG star mid laner Song "Rookie" Eui-jin had a stunning split, but it was RNG AD carry Jian "Uzi" Zi-Hao who ruled the day. IG started off well enough with a win in Game 1, but it wasn't long before RNG completely flipped the series on its head with a lightning fast 24-minute win in Game 2. By that point, the team had completely put all its eggs in Uzi's basket, and he didn't disappoint with a 13/1/1 KDA (kills/deaths/assists) on Kai'Sa to tie up the series.
IG seemed to get back into gear after a 6-to-0 kill lead in Game 3, but it was only for a fleeting moment. Uzi wasn't content to give up the series that easily, as he performed another solid game on Kai'Sa. With RNG on match point, IG pushed back in Game 4 to force a decisive Game 5. For as exciting as those first four games were, however, the final game was all RNG as it completely owned IG with full objective control coupled with a 12-to-1 kill advantage that resulted in a series clinching 31-minute win to push RNG to another grand final.
Meanwhile, EDG and Rogue Warriors played a far less contentious series on Sunday. It was clear that EDG had done its homework during its two-week break before the semifinals, as it was ready for anything and everything that Rogue had to offer. Rather than playing to Rogue's hands by trying to get into a bottom lane battle, EDG made sure to get mid laner Lee "Scout" Ye-chan ahead in each game.
EDG set the tone early and often to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead. Scout, on Taliyah in both games, put together a 7/4/27 KDA that left Rogue no room to maneuver. It wasn't a complete cakewalk, however, as Rogue battled back by giving its own mid laner, Kim "doinb" Tae-sang, plenty of help to shut down Scout's Swain with an impressive 6/0/5 KDA of his own. Rogue might have done well to stop Scout from popping off in Game 3, but that only worked for so long against the powerful Swain. Scout was back on top of the world in the final game, tallying a 9/0/7 KDA.
EDG and RNG defied the odds and expectations set forth by the regular season and will face off in a classic LPL matchup at 4 a.m. ET on Saturday, while Invictus and Rogue will go to battle in the third-place match at 5 a.m. on Tuesday.